The Balochi benju player performs the title track from his new album
After seeing a clip of Ustad Noor Bakhsh playing his unusual benju instrument some years ago, Pakistani ethnomusicologist Daniyal Ahmed went in search of the musician, driving down the sparsely populated coast of Balochistan. Against all the odds, a serendipitous journey resulted in the pair meeting and Ahmed subsequently spent several days with Bakhsh in his remote village near Pasni, Balochistan. Jingul is a collection of recordings of songs recorded live by the Shadi Kaur creek, close to Bakhsh's village. With his two damboora players Jamadar Gohram and Doshambay, Bakhsh performs styles of music from many regions, embracing Balochistan's position as a cultural crossroads.
“I knew that he was playing Balochi music, so I was vaguely familiar with the forms,” says Ahmed, speaking to Francis Gooding in The Wire 466. “But he’s also playing folk renditions of Hindustani raga, Farsi tunes, Kurdish tunes and tunes of all the different languages of Pakistan, like Pashto and Punjabi tunes, and renditions of Bollywood tunes. And then original compositions rooted in Balochi music. He even played me an Israeli tune, and there was an Arabic tune, a tune based in Iranian music from Saravan…”
Jingul is released by honiunhoni. Read more about Ahmed's journey and Ustad Noor Bakhsh the musician in The Wire 466. Wire subscribers can also read the article online via the digital archive.
