Around the world in Dhaka

Although most of my 2 months spent in Dhaka this summer was unfortunately getting very ill, the first couple of weeks I managed to have some good fun, and see a few interesting shows.

I went to a Le Saigon show for the first time. It was Laila's show, which was a very pleasant and entertaining performance. Her classic beauty and voice, gave the place an atmosphere of a jazz cafe in New York. She sang off tracks (a very hard thing to do!) song after song, covering many artists from many eras, from Sade to Colbie Calliat to Frank Sinatra.


I especially enjoyed her own song, she wrote about a love-hate relationship which ultimately turned out to be with a mosquito! I would definitely love to hear more of her original stuff. Overall she kept the audience on their toes, but lightly with her little jokes and stories, keeping us involved in the show (another very hard thing to do, involve your audience!) She mentioned how she performs with guitarists and other musicians abroad, which has developed my eagerness to see her with a band next time :-)


A totally different show I saw the same week at a more personal space:

A Night with Rob Fakir: This Kushtia Baul is no new name, and it was our luck that we got a very close and personal cosy show with him in August. A close friend of ours invited him down to Dhaka for an all night jolsha in a small open-air little room, in the middle of a large chunk of land filled with trees. In our urban jungle, it was almost a little space of fresh air.

It was word of mouth amongst friends that ended up bringing a pretty big crowd to our friends place, and it was Rob Fakir and his friends' amazing performance that kept us there the whole night.To make things even greater, my fabourite Dhol player Nazrul Bhai was playing with him!

Rob Fakir, in my eyes has a very special something about him, not only his voice and his beautiful do-taara playing, but it's his charisma that entrances you into his music.
I guess it was part of this charisma the London's Evening Standard highlighted him in a review of Bangla Beat to Afro Beat show where he had performed along with Arnob, Kishon Khan's Lokhhi Tera (including myself.)
It was at that show in London that I had met him and had been introduced to this personality or as we are now nicknaming him, the "Rob-star." After his own performance, he had stood backstage for 45 minutes and fully watched our set, a set of 14 band members from all over world mainly playing Afro beat and Latin jazzish pieces merged with Bangla lyrics. He had stood there straight without batting an eye lash, absorbing the playing of the different instrumentalists.

Back to his show, we all sat around him, incences lit and moglai porota's being passed around in between songs, it was homely and warm and I can safely say we felt a part of his performance. He took little breaks and asked some of the singers in the audience to join him. He especially requested Arnob (with whom he collaborated with in Bangla's 2nd album Protutpunnomotitto), saying that it's been a long time since he've heard him sing. Arnob obliged, meekly took the stage, even a superstar like him, humble to this man's connection with Lalon's preachings, his messages and his melodies. He sang Jaat Gelo and Chatokh Pakhi (in which we all joined in.) Following him was Labik Kamal Gaurob, another loyal student of Lalon and later Rob Bhai's son, both bringing two different loves to the songs, one of a city boy growing up in our concrete jungle who found salvation in Lalon's words, and the other of a boy brought up with Lalon's philosophy in his blood and home.
I must say, it was when others were singing that I fell deeper in love with Rob Bhai's Do-taara playing, when he was sliding in and out of their singing and solo-ing in between verses, on his self made do-taara. It was a real treat.
And this way the night continued with all of us contributing to the atmosphere on our night with Rob Fakir.

So there you go, that's Dhaka for you, within 30 minutes drive you can be in downtown New York or a mela in Kushtia. I'm sad to be leaving, but as it goes, we must move on to the next phase of our lives, so next time I write, it shall hopefully be from my new house in India :-)

Peace and Love