All: Delays, Rochester, Music, Digressions...

[Nadeem Jamali <jamali@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

Friends,

As some of you may have noticed, things were moving a bit slow on
Sindh-L in the last two weeks.  I was in the process of moving to
Rochester (NY) for a summer job at Kodak Research Labs.  I'm pretty
much setted now, so things are back to normal.

If there are Sindhis in the Western New York region interested in
getting together, I'd really like to meet them.  I also have an album
full of pictures from my last visit home, and some Sindhi music that
I'll be happy to share.  Talking of music, just before beginning my
journey, I received two new Sindhi CDs that I had ordered from
Amazon.com... it was only during my drive to Rochester that I got a
chance to listen to them.  One is a compilation of Sindhi "alghoza"
flute music by Khamisu Khan, tiled "l'Art de l'Aghoza du Sind" (The
art of the Alghoza from Sind) and the other is a collection of
traditional music from all over Sindh, titled "Sindhi Soul Session".

The Alghoza CD is probably the best compilation of Sindhi instrumental
music I've heard in a long time.  From the liner notes that came with
the CD, I've gathered that the recording was done at the Festival of
Traditional Arts, in Rennes, France, in 1974.

"Khamisu Khan, who plays the alghoza on this recording, was born in
1936 and died in 1983.  He came from a small village near Hyderabad,
where he grew sugar cane.  However, his passion for music and his
playing skill made him one of the greatest musicians in Sind.... "

Another famous Alghoza player was a somewhat distant relative of mine
called Misri Khan Jamali.  I remember when I was in grade school,
another kid once came to me and said his father was a great fan of
Misri Khan Jamali, and asked if I was related.  I went back home and
asked my dad, whose response was, "No no... we're not the musician
Jamalis...  we're the fighting Jamalis".  I was to realize later that
it wasn't as straightforward.  My grand father was a farmer Jamali,
and my father was a surgeon Jamali... and both were very fond of
music... fighting was just something they enjoyed doing in their spare
time.  I guess like all other Sindhis, my father took the things that
bound us together for granted, and saw it more important to emphasize
the differences.  But I digress...

The CD's liner notes do a rather decent job descibing the Sindhi land
and culture...

"... Sind stretches over the border into India and covers part of
Rajasthan.  It was cut in two in 1947, when Pakistan and India became
independent.  Sind has a very specific culture and history.  The area
of present-day Sind province was the centre of the ancient Indus
Valley Civilization, as represented by the wonderful site of
Mohenjo-daro with evidence of an important hierarchy in its social and
artistic system.

"Sind was traversed over the centuries by Mesopotamians, Sumerians,
Arabs and Persians and it became a centre of Vedism and of
spiritualist beliefs.  From the 11th century onwards, Islam became the
dominant religion, but without completely obliterating earlier
influences and magical practices.  Some historians believe that the
world's gypsies originated in Sind.  Even nowadays, the province is
famed for its friendliness and its fine festivals, its storytellers,
dancers and musicians.

"There are many opportunities for music-making of all kinds in Sind,
whether religious (in the shrines), or secular, at the various social
events.  Sind excels in "performance music" by professional musicians
of various communities.  The dominant element of Sindhi music is the
"kaafii", a poem set to music (the melodic settings are known as
"sur"), associated with Sind's great poet and mystic, Shah Abdul Latif
(1690 - 1752).  Both the kaafii and the sur represent a remarkable
synthesis of art and folk tradition... "

There's also a description of the instrument and the skill require
in playing it...

"The alghoza is a type of duct flute, with a recorder-like mouthpiece.
It is generally double.  Its name comes from the Arabic "al", definite
article, and "joza", pair.  One of the two pipes has eight
finger-holes and the other twelve.  A mobil piece of wax is used to
change scales.  The player blows into both pipes simultaneously.
Probably originating in Sind and the Penjab, the alghoza is also found
in Rajasthan and in Madhya Pradesh.  The instrument played here by
Khamisu Khan has two extra pipes which produce a constant stream of
sound by the method of circular breathing, a technique by which the
player produces a constant stream of air through simultaneous
inhalation and exhalation, while the player inhales into the lungs
through the nose."

In addition to the alghoza, the CD also contains a track of tabla and
"ghara" (a large clay pot) music.  These two instruments are also nicely
described.  The liner notes are by Francoise Grund, the artistic director
of the Festival of Traditional Arts.

So if there is one Sindhi CD you should get, this is the one.

The other CD I mentioned "Sindhi Soul Session" contains instrumental
as well as vocal music by many different performers.  This one is
published as part of the WorldNetwork collection (containing 49 CDs of
world music so far) in cooperation with WDR (Westdeutcher Rundfunk),
Germany's largest broadcasting companythe people who produced the Sufi
Soul CD about which I posted some months ago.  The liner notes talk
about the entire series... the para about the Sindhis CD has this to
say:

"Sindh, the southern province of Pakistan, is considered to be the
true home of the wantering mystics and ascetics knows as dervishes.
This CD presents the very finest Sufi musicians, performing
improvisations on the stringed surando that verge on pure jazz, while
the double flute alghoza evokes endless camel rides through the heat
of the Sindh desert".

Another excellent CD of traditional Sindhi music.  Both these can be
ordered from Amazon.com.  While you're there, also check out "Sindhi
Music Ensemble:  Sufi Music from Sindh" and the flute music by Iqbal
Jogi, which saiin Agha has reviewed here in the past.

In any case, does anyone know of a Sindhi organization in Rochester,
Buffalo etc.?  As I said, I'd be very interested in meeting other
Sindhis.  I can be reached by my university email address
jamali@cs.uiuc.edu.

Jhuley Lal!

Nadeem

--
Nadeem Jamali                                           jamali@cs.uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois-UC                   http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali