Cultural connections drive singer’s art
What: Kiran Ahluwalia When: Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Where: Farquhar Auditorium, University Centre, University of Victoria Admission: $35 (or four tickets for $100 at UVic Ticket Centre); students and alumni, $25. Tickets, info: 250-721-8480, ticket@uvic.ca
It will be a family affair when Kiran Ahluwalia takes to the stage at UVic’s Farquar Auditorium on Sunday night.
One of the musicians the Juno Award-winning Indo-Canadian singer, composer and world-music artist will be accompanied by is her husband, Rez Abbasi, the Pakistanborn composer and jazz guitarist.
Ahluwalia, born in Patna, India, was trained in Indian classical music and ghazal. Her distinctive style combines this Indian-Pakistani poetic song tradition with Sahara desert blues and western jazz.
“It’s incredibly invigorating when I feel a connection in expressions from different cultures and then figure out ways to connect them seamlessly in my music,” said Ahluwalia.
“Those moments of discovery are nothing short of sublime. It’s really the essence of everything for me.”
The fusion of Ahluwalia’s unique sound and vision with Abbasi’s trademark blend of jazz and Indian music has been fruitful since the couple began collaborating artistically.
Ahluwalia’s songs have been described as pieces that musically “speak about the unattainable, both the beloved and the divine, realizing female desire by throwing away all shame and untying the knots that bind us to stale embraces.” The arrangements and ideas from her husband and musical director have allowed her to expand her influences in a modern world, she says.
“When I was growing up in India, there were concerts that people from all over would crowd into,” said Ahluwalia, whose family later immigrated to Toronto.
“These concerts featured a repertoire, language and content that was both demanding and beyond the experience of a child. I was, however, entranced by the sound and feel of the music, even from an early age.”
Her father purchased a reel-to-reel tape machine on a visit to Hong Kong after sensing his daughter’s strong connection to the music.
“My father would play tapes of Indian music for me on the reel-to-reel and we would also listen to Bollywood on the radio,” she said. “So when a song came on that I wanted to learn, my mother would quickly write down the lyrics for me and I would sing along to learn the melody.”
Her husband, who was voted No. 1 Rising Star in a Downbeat 2016 critics poll, is a respected artist in his own right. After studying jazz and classical music at the University of Southern California and the Manhattan School of Music, he went on a pilgrimage in India, where he was tutored by master percussionist Ustad Alla Rakha.
The New York-based couple have collaborated musically since Ahluwalia’s fourth album, a journey that included a trip to Portugal to collaborate with fado musicians and studying Tuareg and other West African music. Ahluwalia’s world-music albums include 2007’s Wanderlust and Aam Zameen: Common Ground, 2011’s collaboration with Malian group Tinariwen.