Musician mixing Indian and Western sounds

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This article was published 02/11/2011 (5268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After 16 years of teaching East Indian music, Amjad Sabir is ready for something new.

While he won’t stop teaching, the St. Vital resident said he wants to create a new style of music — one with roots in the East Indian tradition, but mixed with Western sounds.

An upcoming concert showcasing Indian music and dance, with Sabir as the featured artist, will also be a chance for the musician to showcase the beginnings of his experiments with this new style.

Sabir has arranged a number of popular Indian songs that blend the traditional sounds of the harmonium and tabla — a type of Indian keyboard and drum, respectively — with saxophone, keyboard, bass, violin, guitar and conga drums.

The musician included a saxophone in a concert a couple years ago, and he said he’s ready to keep experimenting.

“I won’t say it is a fusion, but I am trying to mix Western music with Indian,” Sabir explained.

“It’s Indian with a touch of Western,” added Tiffany Prochera, a Fort Garry-based musician who will be playing keyboard at the concert.

The Sat., Nov. 5 event, An Evening of Geet & Gazal, will showcase a diversity of Indian dance and music, Sabir said — including classical Indian dancing, Bollywood, Punjabi songs, old movie songs, and the classical vocal style Raga.

“It’s a way to keep the community in touch with their music,” he said.

Sabir — who teaches at the India School of Music and the University of Manitoba’s school of music — said the concert is also a chance for some of his senior students to gain more experience performing.

But its talk of his new music style that make Sabir’s eyes gleam.

“This is my earnest desire to create something new,” he said, before acknowledging, “I’m trying still.”

Prochera said her experience playing with Sabir has been an exciting challenge.

“Indian music is something I’ve heard before, and enjoyed,” she said.

“To learn the intricacies of it, and how to put it together, has been quite the adventure.”

An Evening of Geet & Gazal will take place Sat., Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Indo Canadian Arts & Cultural Centre, 479 St Mary’s Rd.

Tickets can be purchased at the door, or in advance at Bharat Grocery (3-280 St Anne’s Rd.); A-one House Of Spices (3-1875 Pembina Hwy.); and Tehran Market (1875 Pembina Hwy.).

To learn more, visit www.sabirmusic.com.

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