City gets doused in desert music

The first edition of Amarrass Desert Music Festival at Purana Qila last year had left the audience awestruck with amazing performances and this year was no different.

The scintillating performances by renowned international and national artists made Zorba reverberate with traditional desert music. From Bombino who is called Jimi Hendrix of Niger to BaBa Zula, the creators of Istanbul psychedelic music and Padmashri awardee Sakar Khan who plays kamancha, Desert Music Festival 2012 was an amazing experience for the audience, who got to familiarise themselves with some beautiful sounds they have never heard before.

To bring alive the beauty of desert, the open area was decorated with traditional Rajasthani handicrafts like puppets and lanterns. Even the stage backdrop was completely covered with colourful red-yellow bandhini dupattas.  

The festival started with a musical composition played by Alan Rego, a virtuoso on a variety of instruments, principally the guitar and mouth organ. This was followed by
I Adra, who brought a unique fusion of Indian ghazals and Welsh Poetry.

Tauseef Akhtar on harmonium and Gwyneth Glyn on the harp along with their team beautifully combined ancient Welsh poetry with ghazals. Both the musicians gave tribute to their teachers through a mesmerising song ‘Tum Hume Yaad Aaoge’.

It was Barmer Boys, the folk musicians of Rajasthan who played traditional tunes like Raichand, Lehariya, Ichki and Sufi Kalam by Pir Naushad. Their lead vocalist Mangey Khan’s voice left the audience spell-bound.

But the real treat lay in hearing Sakar Khan play the kamancha after a long time. The 76-year old musician who has performed with the legendary Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison, no longer participates in music festivals because of his health. However, he recited raag Khamaj and raag Deep along with his younger son Feroz at the festival.

The musical extravaganza continued with the rocking performance by guitar player Omara Bombino, who played for the first time in the country. Bombino played composition from his solo album Agadez, which was followed by Baba Zula who played psychedelic music.

“The idea of the festival came about after we produced our first show - The Manganiyar Seduction in November 2010. That was the seed for the Amarrass Desert Music Festival. This year we tried to make it more entertaining by bringing famous musicians from African countries,” says Ankur Malhotra, the main organiser of the festival.