Izzat Majeed could have retired quietly, but instead he formed the Sachal Jazz Ensemble and built a music studio in Lahore. The London-based father of three was born and brought up in Lahore. He recalls a vibrant city full of music and culture. When he was a child, Lollywood - Pakistan's film industry - was producing 100 movies a year. He recalls seeing the Dave Brubeck Trio playing in the city as part of America's Jazz Ambassador's Tour. This was the start of a lifelong affection for jazz. As the years passed, a more religious and less culturally tolerant society took shape in Pakistan. Izzat was extremely disheartened by this. Lollywood all but disappeared, and the classical musicians at it's heart disappeared with it. They had to make ends meet in any way they could. when he retired, he decided to do something about it, and the Sachal Jazz Ensemble was born.

My Pakistani Jazz Orchestra

Funkiwala Records present
LoKkhi TeRra meets Shikor Bangladesh AllStars
12" vinyl/CD/downloads -  "BanglaRasta" released July 2016


Ronger Duniya

Funkiwala Records presents
Shikor Bangladesh AllStars - Kon Kole - from their album "Soul of Bengal"
out June1st 2015 CD/download
Debut UK gig @ Songlines Encounters festival, Kings place, London, June 6th, 2015
also played - Womad 2015, June 25

Shikor Bangladesh AllStars - Kon Kole

Buy on Beatport: http://bit.ly/KDISIbizaSampler
Buy on iTunes: http://apple.co/1HRRlZ8

http://www.facebook.com/kneedeepinsound

Sidney Charles & Santé - Blade

Inspired by the motion of Indian Classical music: Slow, Faster... Fastest

Chill In Nizamuddin

Who ruffles feathers and gets excited when the dark clouds gather rain?

Who is he that plays the flute when the skies swell and threaten to burst? If you will, whoever you are, always remember that vanity is futile
So go take a hike

Sailing out in the stormy seas, there are only a few that brave the elements

But who joins the lowly fisherman to cast his net? And who joins me when reeds are chopped to build a nest? Who gets to share the nectar filled up in a bamboo shoot? When grains are ready, swaying in the fields, who would be my sickle to harvest it? 

Come along

Let’s watch tribals dance, let’s join in their rhythm and song

Bravely walk across to a place where wild beasts roam to watch a kingfisher perched on the horns of an antelope

Come hike the jungle-path

Let’s build a tree house hidden from the world and sing and dance behind creeper curtains…`


Nada Nada

Njan Aara (who am I?) is a song about ones identity, in this case, while introspecting matters of the heart. In the rhythmic beating of the heart one understands hidden thoughts. When one’s dreams are warmed by love, the mind wishes to awake to all things new. Old thoughts are burnt away like senescent leaves as a fire spreads rapidly through one’s senses.

Keep the flame burning. Even when there is no hope and dark thoughts threaten to loom and build a fortress around the mind, even if sunshine is but a distant memory; know yourself and you will be able to find a way to accept a crown of thorns and swim tirelessly in troubled waters.


Njan Aara

All that is done in moderation retains worth, but should it be in excess, chances are its essence would become distorted. Who has known of a farmer wasting seeds? But at times the seed of greed forms deep roots. However, nature has a lesson for each one of us. Even a glowworm is aware of the fact that all that glitters is not gold. 
Traditions have been lost; the village fields have paved the way for the city and the village well would dry providing for those beyond its means. Gone are the days when a boatman serenaded his beloved with unsung songs about the river, eager lovers hum movie songs these days.
The grass appears greener on the other side and people are quick to be entrapped in words of charm. And then there are some who believe in a cause but are never motivated enough to make a change.


Arikuruka

Chekele describes the plight of an agrarian couple Chathan and Neeli.

The farmer and his wife awoke before dawn and arrived at the thambran’s (landlord) house to mark their attendance before working the fields. At the paddy field, they find the crop destroyed due to flooding. Chathan, worried about his next meal, wonders if he could get a simple porridge at dusk. “Madathilendunde kachikudikkan aiye Andekadi ke daathi” (is there anything at home that can be boiled and drunk for dinner, my dear? He asks). A failed crop, is a failed year…when the harvest festival of Kerala ~ Onam ~ comes, this year, the couple will be unable to participate in the ritual of giving handsel, a token gift of food and grains to the landlord.

The farmer’s predicament takes him and his wife into the forest for sustenance. The last-remaining sweet-tasting food they brought along for the journey has attracted ants and the cane basket that they carried their belongings in has come undone…

But despite being unlucky, the journey into the forest gives the couple a chance to be alone; never losing sight of each other they climb many hills, hastily.


Chekele

Who mucked up the system and more importantly why are we paying for the sins of our forefathers? The price of an elephant is what it takes to light up a village but sometimes even for the price of two; one cannot light up a home. Such is the irony of life, even as news ceases to make sense. Turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper only to learn that two minarets crushed a housefly or that a woman in Kochi began to sprout a mustache, talk about making a mockery on an individual’s intelligence! And then there is the Kaliyuga that is blamed for unusual happenings. Nobody really questions why?

Aranda

The title of the song has been taken from a reference on 'Raising of Kundalini' through Yoga. Here, however, it simply means attaining higher knowledge ~ learning to live amicably with nature.

The forests have disappeared and time has come to a close for people who live there. The once nectar-filled beehives are dry and tribal women in their prime have been deflowered. Why do people fail to see the signs of desertification? For it is apparent in the fall of a mighty elephant or the wail of a deer. Look! The tusks are now part of someone’s treasure and the lake-facing plot of land is home to the rich, as the tale is spun somewhat differently in the real world.


Aadu Pambe

Sachal Jazz Orchestra
Drawing on influences from Lahore to New York, the Ensemble presents innovative jazz and bossa nova standards from their recent album that has captured musical imaginations with a flood of internet hits. Their fresh re-working of Dave Brubeck’s iconic Take Five prompted the jazz legend to exclaim that “this is the most interesting and different recording of Take Five that I have ever heard.”
Other innovative interpretations include Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ and Dave Grusin’s ‘Mountain Dance’, the latter highlighting some incredible sitar playing. In the reworked ‘Misty’, composed by Erroll Garner, the sitar and tabla supply the melody lines layered on a lush rhythmic foundation provided by the traditional clay pot, ghungroos (ankle-bells), triangle, and tambourine. Blended with these south Asian instruments are sweeping classical violins and bursts of western drum, guitar and bass to create a scintillating hybrid, a reminder that the boundaries of jazz remain hard to define.
The inspiration behind the Sachal Jazz Ensemble and a wider Sachal project is London- based businessman-turned-studio boss Izzat Majeed. Working with consultants from London’s Abbey Road studios, he set up state-of-the-art studios in Lahore, rescued Pakistani musicians from poverty and brought them together to make music. The revival has prompted comparisons with the Buena Vista Social Club’s rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.
Majeed’s wider goal is to rub fresh magic into Lahore’s musical traditions, once a sub- continental cultural hub. Majeed says Pakistan’s classical music scene was decimated in the 1980s when the dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, following an austere Islamic line, crushed the local film industry. Hundreds of musicians, employed to record film scores, lost their jobs and went on to ply less lyrical trades: a cellist ran a tea stall; a violinist sold vegetables from his bicycle; others sold clothes or electrical parts. Under a cloud of growing conservatism, some Sachal musicians said they dared not practise at home, fearing they could offend pious neighbours. “There was a cultural impasse in Pakistan,” says Majeed. “After the coup of Zia-ul Haq, our society and culture was transformed into something dark. The film industry died, television was taken over by primitive authoritarian entities, and our great musicians were left without patronage. Zia’s version of culture raped us of the rich musical history that we had.” Majeed, who grew up listening to jazz greats like Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in Lahore, says there are similarities between the improvisational aspects of classical music from the sub-continent and Jazz. “Take Five’s rhythmic structure and time scale is pretty close to our kind of music,” Majeed says. “The concept of free period — remaining within the melody structure and time scale — is something our musicians love. Take Five has done so well because it was something new and well-played.”

Discography

Single: Take Five - sm005
Single: Desafinado - sm012
Album: Sachal Jazz - Interpretations of Jazz Standards and Bossa Nova - sm019

My Pakistani Jazz Orchestra

Sachal Music

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