Customer Reviews

Pukar

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

 

 

Najma Akhtar is one of the most important contemporary artists. The essence of her indescribable work is her voice and the accomplishment instrumentation: it's possible to hear a rare music - indian music and jazz! Some people would say light jazz. In despite of all I hear a sweet and strong singular female voice and jazz. It' possible to make music after Beethoven and Bach and it's very good. There is a mistery in her work. I think that Najma Akhtar follows Ravi Shankar.

This is some of the sweetest music that I have ever heard. Najma's voice is smooth and sensual and the Hindi song lyrics are touching and romantic. An excellent value.

Pukar is the latest and best fusion of East Indian and Western jazz from this incredibly talented singer. It's got just enough western influence to make it stand up to modern music and recording standards without destroying the sincerity of the style of music. Even if you don't understand the language, you'll appreciate the feeling that comes through. Najma has an incredibly clear voice that is powerfull yet delicate. Her best effort yet.

I became interested in Najma after hearing her at a festival last summer, and being struck by the mixture of Indian and jazz influences with a stunningly soulful voice. I sent off for 2 cds, 'Vivid' (reviewed elsewhere and 'Pukar'.

'Pukar' (Calling You) is a collection of songs about love and marriage. Unfortunately I am rather past the age of romantic illusions myself, but nevertheless I like the mix of rhythms, modal melodies, and jazz. My personal favourite is 'Jhoomo Gao' (Let's Dance and Sing), a lively wedding song in 3/4.

The other songs generally follow a formula of a steady 4-in-a-bar rhythm, with long-held synth chords, soulful vocals, instrumental solos, and lively and varied percussion creating a rich and varied texture. The rhythm section together with some unexpected melodic shifts adds life to the proceedings, although some more up-tempo numbers would be welcome!

I preferred Najima on Forbidden Kiss, the tribute to S.D. Burman's Indian film songs. The Burman songs gave a bit more focus to the project, whereas Pukar is more of a collection of mood pieces that make for pleasant enough listening, but are not especially memorable. It works very well as background music on my PC at work. On the 7th track, "Baabul," she sings some of the lines in English, which lessens its impact. In this case, I feel like the music is being dumbed down a bit for western listeners, which is somewhat pointless. Either you go for this sort of thing or you don't. As I said in my review of Forbidden Kiss, Najima sings well but she won't make you forget Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, or Chitra Singh.