And now for a Tiny Desert Concert. That’s when we bring local bands into the KJZZ studio to play a couple songs for us and talk a bit about the music. Today we hear from Qais Essar.
Qais is one of eight acts from Arizona playing in this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin. He plays a unique fusion of Eastern and Western music using an Afghan stringed instrument called the rabab. Qais spoke about his instrument and distinct style.
Full conversation
QAIS ESSAR: The rabab originates from Central Asia. It's considered to be the national instrument of Afghanistan. That's where I'm from. The instrument itself has been dated as far back as, I'd say, 2,500 to 3,000 years old, and it's a lute instrument made from primarily three pieces of wood. The skin is made from a goat string, and we traditionally are supposed to play on strings made from intestine gut. So I opt for nylon, because I figure that's easier to find. And I don't know, I figured intestine would start to smell like beef jerky after a while, if you play with it for a while.
STEVE GOLDSTEIN: So fusion, in the past, for some when I think about jazz, fusion could sound like, yeah, kind of a pejorative, not a great word. In your case, when you're fusing, what are you fusing? What do you want the final product to be?
ESSAR: Yeah. See, I hate the word fusion, too. It's such like a, I don't know, but it's, I mean, for lack of a better term, an amalgamation, right? So, you know, you kind of forget that. you know, you have, you're mixing two different traditions. It's just presented as one new, you know, at this time, genre-less, but you know, nevertheless, a new type of sound.
GOLDSTEIN: So Qais, the reason you're here is to play a song for us. What are you gonna play?
ESSAR: I’m gonna play the single from my first LP entitled "Transmutation."
(Music)
GOLDSTEIN: Do you feel a kind of pressure when you're when you're melding these sorts of sounds together, especially one that is has a very old tradition, and then one could argue that it sounds, in some ways, the style that people could be more used to in a current sense. I mean, you're really trying to put together two different sounds, and yet it seems to come out comfortably with you and what do your band members do?
ESSAR: Well, yeah, I mean, what I'm trying to do is preserve this instrument, so provide a vehicle for it to come into the 21st century, because especially from a lot of these older oral traditions, a lot of stuff kind of becomes lost over the generations. And so such a beautiful instrument with such a beautiful timbre and sound should be enjoyed by a whole other generation. And I'm hoping that by mixing it with other types of music and by presenting it in a different way, that this music not only survives, not only the instrument, but hopefully a renewed interest in the East, as far as looking at it as a place of art, as a place of music and culture.
GOLDSTEIN: So Qais, let's talk cross-cultural here when we think about Eastern and Western and what goes into that, and how do you feel about that as someone who is approaching it from the standpoint of a musician? Do you like the heft of that idea of bringing these different cultures together?
ESSAR: I think it's the responsibility of anyone that commands such an audience to be able to do something with it. And my goals, aside from, you know, what I want to do musically, I also have my own, like, sociopolitical agenda, and that's showing people that really aren't used to seeing the more positive aspects of just my culture, right?
So just, you know, let's focus on Afghanistan. Over the past 40 to 50 years, there's been just, you know, turmoil and war. I would love it in five years when someone says the word Afghanistan not immediately associated with like Taliban or immediately associates it with terrorism. I would love it if it was like someone said, Afghanistan. "Oh, the place with awesome music or awesome food or awesome people," and all of that is true.
GOLDSTEIN: And Qais, why don't you take us out on the song?
ESSAR: Not a problem. I will play a little bit more of a traditional piece. It's a "Dog Rag Shirvan," and I'm just going to do a brief improv.
(Music)
If you’re in a band or know of one you’d like to hear on air, send us a note at [email protected].
