Grammy-winning Pakistani-American vocalist and composer Arooj Aftab describes the new collaborative trio record, Love In Exile, with pianist/keyboardist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, in this interview from backstage at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, after their performance at the 2023 Big Ears Festival. Arooj Aftab explains that Shahzad creates the groove and carves the time for the trio, and acts as the grounding element. Vijay helps establish the haunted cycles, “slowly and delicately transforming them, as Arooj glides across like a dark moon.” (Udiscovermusic). Aftab seems to relish using her distinctive voice as another instrument in the ensemble, and is not caught up in being the (lead) vocalist: “I’m not thinking about telling a story” she says in conversation with host John Schaefer backstage at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, after the performance at the 2023 Big Ears Festival. She explains how the three players love to leave space, and take turns doing so as they merge their collective lifetimes of musical experience, trusting in one another to create spontaneous acts of delicate beauty, melodic dialogies, and a unique gorgeous sound. Hear some of the music from the Love in Exile album, along with music from Arooj Aftab’s 2021 Grammy-winning album, Vulture Prince, where she combines Western instrumentation with texts from Urdu and Farsi poetry. And more. - Caryn Havlik Program #4740, With Arooj Aftab from Big Ears ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Island No. 1 [1:00]RECORDING: Siren IslandsSOURCE: New Amsterdam RecordsINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Love In Exile [:25]RECORDING: Live from Big Ears, 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Island No. 1 [3:36]RECORDING: Siren IslandsSOURCE: New Amsterdam RecordsINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Shadow Forces [14:04]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: To Remain To Return [9:17]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Suroor [5:17]RECORDING: Vulture PrinceSOURCE: New AmsterdamINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Sharabi [13:36]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow
Grammy-winning Pakistani-American vocalist and composer Arooj Aftab describes the new collaborative trio record, Love In Exile, with pianist/keyboardist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, in this interview from backstage at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, after their performance at the 2023 Big Ears Festival.
Arooj Aftab explains that Shahzad creates the groove and carves the time for the trio, and acts as the grounding element. Vijay helps establish the haunted cycles, “slowly and delicately transforming them, as Arooj glides across like a dark moon.” (Udiscovermusic). Aftab seems to relish using her distinctive voice as another instrument in the ensemble, and is not caught up in being the (lead) vocalist: “I’m not thinking about telling a story” she says in conversation with host John Schaefer backstage at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, after the performance at the 2023 Big Ears Festival. She explains how the three players love to leave space, and take turns doing so as they merge their collective lifetimes of musical experience, trusting in one another to create spontaneous acts of delicate beauty, melodic dialogies, and a unique gorgeous sound.
Hear some of the music from the Love in Exile album, along with music from Arooj Aftab’s 2021 Grammy-winning album, Vulture Prince, where she combines Western instrumentation with texts from Urdu and Farsi poetry. And more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4740, With Arooj Aftab from Big Ears
ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Island No. 1 [1:00]RECORDING: Siren IslandsSOURCE: New Amsterdam RecordsINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Love In Exile [:25]RECORDING: Live from Big Ears, 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow
ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Island No. 1 [3:36]RECORDING: Siren IslandsSOURCE: New Amsterdam RecordsINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Shadow Forces [14:04]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow
ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: To Remain To Return [9:17]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow
ARTIST: Arooj AftabWORK: Suroor [5:17]RECORDING: Vulture PrinceSOURCE: New AmsterdamINFO: aroojaftab.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad IsmailyWORK: Sharabi [13:36]RECORDING: Love In ExileSOURCE: Verve RecordsINFO: https://loveinexile.lnk.to/OutNow