Customer Reviews

Hawa Hawa

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Quite simply, one of the most beautiful, alluring and contemplative sets of North Indian music to come down the pike in while. Husain Khan hails from the province of Simla, and draws on that regions folk tradition to gather this stellar set of a half dozen romantically themed songs, sung in both Hindi and Punjabi. If you've ever found Indian music a bit daunting or inaccessable, then try this disc out -- it's rich and relaxing, without a single discordant moment... I've spent days on end without it ever leaving my stereo, and really can't recommend it highly enough. A must-have.

Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan may very well be the best Hindustani musician of his generation. It's quite phenomenal that he is so well versed in the classical and folk traditions of India. This is very rare to find. Even more rare to find is a musician with such a feel for music to bring people to tears when listening to it. When I first heard this music, I was into alot of styles of music but the only indian music i was into was the classical form of the north and south. This music helped me to understand the beauty of the folk tradition of india and revealed where the classical music came from. This is the root of all Indian Classical Music. It soothes your soul. I think that even more important than having ears in order to listen to music is having a heart filled with love. Shujaat sings beautifully and plays the sitar incredibly well weaving an ocean of bliss and imagination. He leads the way to an unknown world....the world of Shujaat Khan. Hawa Hawa.....

Errrr... Make that the musical Khan family of Punjab, an unbroken line of classical sitar masters. Husain's father and teacher was the revered Ustad Vilayat Khan. Husain was already concertizing at age six, and has garnered most of the prizes and titles available to an Indian classical musician under the age of forty-five. Like many of his peers these days, a goodly share of his audience is in.... California! where he was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles when this performance was recorded.

Shujaat Husain Khan sings as he plays his sitar, and on this CD his voice is more prominent than his instrument. He sings in the instantly recognizable Indian style, all head voice and no chest, breathy and nasal but supremely agile, sweetly melancholy to European ears, a very pleasant sound even when expressing life's losses. It's important to note that Husain Khan isn't performing the deeply traditional religious texts of Indian classical music. Four of the poems Husain sings on this CD are his own, while two are traditional Punjabi folk songs.

In fact, there is a folkloric quality to "Hawa Hawa" that represents a great departure from his seven-generation heritage. Like the sons of J. S. Bach, Shujaat Husain has simplified and popularized his music - adapted to the taste of his audience, if you will. The complex formal rhythmic patterns of classical North Indian tabla-playing have been smoothly "westernized" into measured six-eight and two-four beats. The extended exploration of tonalities and micro-tones of the older style of raga improvisation has been abandoned, at least in this performance. "Hawa Hawa" is Indian classical music in transition to Bollywood.

I'm sure there are purists of North Indian music who will despise this recording as "light weight" stuff. I'm not one of them, but then I have no investment in maintaining the classical style. I find "Hawa Hawa" musically thrilling and poetically poignant, and I've already popped Shujaat Husain Khan's other CDs into my groaning amazon shopping cart.

I listen to this CD almost daily. I have it in my car and nothing is better to listen to after a long day at work. The music is both rhythmic and soothing at the same time. The vocals are truely inspirational. If you are thinking of exploring this type of music, I cannot think of a better CD to start with.

First, let me say that this is a very pleasing, easy to listen to but intellectually simulating CD. Shujaat Husain Khan has a smooth, mellow, well-controlled singing style and his sitar playing, especially the fills around the vocal parts, is impeccable. While the songs might sound similar, closer listening will reveal clear differences in the melodies. The "culprit" in terms of that apparent similarity is the sound of the sitar. It is the only non-percussion instrument in this recording and while Shujaat plays beautifully, I found myself wondering why he did not vary the overall color mix by bringing in other instruments. For someone has well-placed in the Indian classical music community as Shujaat (his father is the late Ustad Vilayat Khan, master sitarist), I have to think that he could have easily called in the top young players of, for example, the bansuri (wooden flute) and sarangi (the small upright violin instrument championed by Pandit Ram Narayan). Judicious use of these instruments as well as, perhaps, an additional voice (I am thinking female, e.g., Shweta Jhaveri) would have made this a sensational CD. Don't get me wrong. It's very good, but Shujaat should have pushed himself a bit in putting this project together.