Guitar resurrection
Guitar resurrection
Strange and wonderfully unpredictable are the ways in which music affects listeners, proving that it is a universal language that transcends all boundaries. And when the listener happens to be a musician with a fertile and receptive sensibility, you could witness some truly exciting musical pollination. Sahib Teri Bandi/Maki Madni from the album Songlines by The Derek Trucks Band could well be cited to illustrate this point. Followers of qawwali legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sahab will instantly recall the two individual tracks, namely Sahib Teri Bandi and Maki Madni, from The Last Prophet on the Real World Records catalogue. Derek Trucks, founder of The Derek Trucks Band, ace American guitarist and songwriter with many awards, including the coveted Grammy, borrows liberally from the two Sufi tracks to create a third track that leans heavily on the source tracks, and yet isn’t a cover version.
In the original qawwali rendition, the rhythm maintains a steady pulse throughout, creating the heady trance so typical of the genre. Trucks clips the rhythm at two points in a smart deviation from the original. This might enrage orthodox music lovers but to listeners like me, who do not feel the need to cook up a vociferous contest for superiority between the original and the adaptation, it is a delightful departure from the original. For his improvisations, Trucks chooses spaces between the main melody where he soars away from the sthayi, only to return with a deft sweep. It is only after a good 7.15 minutes into the 9.54-minute-long track that Trucks brings in the main line of Maki Madni. Holding on to only a fragment of the line, Trucks lets the rhythm build up a storm and reveals the melody more completely only when the rhythm settles back, guided by a device often used in qawwali. Moving back into Sahib Teri Bandi, the track ends in a superb tribute to Nusrat sahab.
It was in August 1997 that death stifled the voice of the legendary singer. Fourteen years later, it feels good to hear how death, in some ways, can be defeated by music and musicians.
Write to Shubha at musicmatters@livemint.com
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First Published:19 Aug 2011, 09:20 PM IST
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