{"id":226,"date":"2019-02-04T08:59:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T07:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=226"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:52:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:52:59","slug":"de-negenenveertig-tonen-van-de-pakistaanse-meester-ustad-saami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2019\/02\/04\/de-negenenveertig-tonen-van-de-pakistaanse-meester-ustad-saami\/","title":{"rendered":"Ustad Saami The Master Of The Forty Nine Notes, A Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each and every day, the life of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, 75, is in danger. Saami is the embodiment of a century-old musical tradition passed on by his ancestors. A tradition that\u2019s fiercely repelled by fundamentalists within Pakistan\u2019s Islamic communities. Though Ustad Saami has passed on his wisdom to his sons and students, he is still the only soul on earth with the knowhow to perform all forty-nine notes that encompass the astonishingly intricate khay\u00e1l-technique. When Ustad Saami dies, these forty-nine notes die with him. But now, for the very first time, his music has been captured on a record and he will give a very rare performance outside of Pakistan, at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, The Netherlands.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by:<\/strong> Dirk Baart
\nTranslated by:<\/strong> Jasper Willems
Photo's:<\/strong> Marilena Delli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, American producer Ian Brennan received a mail from Karachi, the heart of Pakistan and one of the largest cities in the world. Ali Sethy and Zeb Bangash, two of Ustad Saami\u2019s students, asked him if he could fly over to Asia to record an album with their esteemed teacher. Brennan didn\u2019t hesitate for a moment; empowering marginalised voices in music has always been his calling card. In 2012, he won a Grammy for his contribution to Tassili<\/em>, an album recorded by Malian\/Berber Tuareg-band Tinariwen. Four years later, he was nominated again as the producer of the Zomba Prison Project-album I Have No Everything Here<\/em>, with songs composed by inmates of the high-security facility within Zomba Prison in Malawi. He followed that endeavour with a book: How Music Dies (Or Lives): Field Recordings And The Battle For Democracy In The Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been making music my entire life\u201d, the producer asserts over the phone in Italy, where he now lives with his wife, photographer Marilena Delli. \u201cSince I was four or five years old, that\u2019s all I ever wanted to do.\u201d As a musician, Brennan was only marginally successful. In his teens and twenties, he started releasing music at an exponential rate, but that big break never happened. In other words: Brennan is fully aware of how not to make records.\n\nInstead, he hung his hat on listening, more specifically, listening to and with others. \u201cI wanted to amplify the words of other people\u201d, he explains. \u201cI was never so much interested in ownership; the existence of something has always been more important to me than its origin. In the end, the most important inventions of mankind have been anonymous. Language and practices, for example. There should be a statue in every city for people who think of those type of things. But instead, we choose to throw ourselves at the feet of pop stars who are perhaps only marginally more talented than us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan isn\u2019t exactly interested in pop stars, and the same goes for \u201cwhite guys with guitars singing in English\u201d \u2013 in his own words. His mission started to take shape when he and his wife landed in Rwanda. \u201cWe were there to visit her mother, but concurrently, we were eager to discover music as well. Not for recording purposes, but basically to educate ourselves.\u201d It was here Brennan and Delli discovered The Good Ones, a trio comprised of every tribe in the land, each member surviving the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The band is set to release their third album this year. \u201cHaving these kinds of experiences, I learn things I still don\u2019t fully understand myself. But I hope they will contribute to the world \u2013 and the lives of the people involved in these projects \u2013 in some meaningful way.\u201d Brennan\u2019s mission took him to the South of Sudan, Tanzania, Cambodia, Romania, and finally Malawi\u2026 and then he ended up having an audience with Ustad Saami in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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