Award-winning singer Kiran Ahluwalia was nearly lost to music fans 20 years ago. The Indian-born Canadian musician had completed an MBA and was all set to move forward with a career in finance, but she had misgivings about working with leveraged buyouts and her heart was not in it.
Having moved to Canada from India at the age of nine, she abandoned financial services and went back to India to study music. She formed a band to explore both Indian music and develop as a musician, marrying Pakistani guitarist Rez Abbasi. Her first self-released album Kashish-Attraction was nominated for a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys), subsequent albums garnered Junos and in 2009 she was given the Songlines/WOMAD Best Newcomer Award for her album Wanderlust.
In the mid-2000s, she saw the Malian desert blues band Tinariwen and was mesmerised by the band's hypnotic, guitar-driven music (Tinariwen performed at Wonderfruit Festival last year). She has since gone on to collaborate with Tinariwen and other West African musicians. The Malian desert groove features on some of the tracks on Ahluwalia's new album, Comfort Food (Kiran Music), which will release on April 5. At my DJ nights I have often played her wonderful cover version of Mustt, Mustt, a ghazal song recorded by the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a qawwali singer from Pakistan, with rock musicians. Her version, with prominent Malian guitar riffs, is stirring.
Ahluwalia's cross-cultural approach is to take a root of Indian folk music, Punjabi features a lot, and blend it with not only North Malian music but also jazz and blues. Some songs start off as Punjabi folk songs like the bhangra beats of the opening track Dil, which Ahluwalia told the Ottawa Citizen is about "throwing away my shame, because shame gets in the way of desires".
In the same interview she states that the album is "very much a work of dissent" and what she targets in the album is intolerance and hate crimes, as well as the rising fundamentalism and ethnic nationalism in South Asia.
One of the songs that seems to reflect Ahluwalia's approach to cross-cultural, Pancake is a Punjabi folk song that opens out with the full band into an urgent groove that reflects on the gift of sharing. But the tracks that I really like are the slow burning Har Khayal and Jaane Jahan, both of which feature Ahluwalia's soaring voice. The latter song is really moving, as the singer explains in the album liner notes: "My words are aimed at reminding us that we all bleed the same red; our tears taste the same salt -- we're all part of the same human species, but can we call ourselves humans when we lack humanity?"
Highly recommended. You can pre-order on Bandcamp and get the first single, Dil, in advance of the album release.
Some new releases have made their way to the World Beat desk. It takes a while for me to listen to all of the new records but here are a few gems worth considering.
Since she moved to Europe in 1992, Somaliland activist and singer Sahra Halgan has released several albums, the latest of which Hiddo Dhawr features Halgan's vocals set to a funky rock-based sound. Worth checking out. Late last year, Buda Musique released Origins by the Negarit Band. The band is comprised of musicians from Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and France and the musicians combine ancient instruments like the Ethiopian krar (a lyre) and masenqo (single string bowed lute) with electric guitars, bass and drums. Transnational in focus, the music of the band sounds like Ethiopian jazz but updated for the 21st century.
Finally, Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora, 1980-93 (Soundway Records, UK) is a must for Highlife fans. In the 1980s, Highlife, boosted by Ghanaian musicians operating in Europe, especially in Germany, supercharged the music with influences from Caribbean zouk and soca to US disco and created what some called "burger highlife". Pat Thomas leads the way with the first single from this danceable compilation with Gye Wani. The album also features George Darko, Charles Amoah and Gyedu Blay Ambolley. The official album launch is on May 10 and you can get it on Bandcamp and Spotify.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
