Fareed Haque: Guistar, Guitars,
Salar Nader, Jim Feist, Kalyan Pathak: Tabla, Percussion,
Rob Clearfield: Keys,
Jon Paul, John Tate: Bass,
Dan Leali, Corey Healy: Drums,
Influences
Funk, Trance, Jazz, Blues, North Indian Folk and Sitar and Tabla music, with dancable beats and grooves
Guitar virtuoso Fareed Haque enjoys a career that spans the spectrum of musical styles. Moving easily between jazz and classical guitar, Fareed's versatility has created a demand for him with prominent jazz and classical artists including Paquito D'Rivera, Dave Holland, Sting, Joe Henderson, Joe Zawinul, Javon Jackson, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling, Lester Bowie, Arturo Sandoval, Robert Walter, Karl Denson, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Kahil el Zabar, Defunckt, Ramsey Lewis, Nigel Kennedy, Edgar Meyer, Robert Conant, Stephen Stubbs, Frank Bungarten, members of the Vermeer Quartet and many symphony orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. He has performed all of the major guitar concertos, is an active transcriber of baroque as well as South American music and has had numerous modern works dedicated to him.
Fareed has also released seven recordings as a leader: Voices Rising and Manresa on Sting's Pangaea label, and Sacred Addiction, Opaque, and Deja Vu, on the prestigious Bluenote label, as well as Singh Song, available on Haven Records. His most recent, the critically acclaimed Cosmic Hug is available on Magnatude Records.
Haque has been featured on WTTW's ArtBeat, Ben Sidran's New Visions, Michelob Presents Sunday Night with David Sanborn on NBC, his own Lonesome Pines special for PBS, and on BET cable jazz channel. Fareed has twice been selected Talent Deserving Wider Recognition in Downbeat magazine. In 1989, Fareed joined the faculty of Northern Illinois University, where he currently holds an associate professorship in jazz and classical guitar studies.
Born in 1963 to Pakistani father and Chilean mother, extensive travels, especially long stays in Spain, France, Iran, Pakistan and Chile, exposed Haque to different musics from a very early age. This natural eclecticism has become the hallmark of Fareed's music. The 1981 Recipient of North Texas State University's Jazz Guitar Scholarship, Haque spent a year studying with renowned jazz guitarist and pedagogue Jack Peterson. Fareed's growing interest in the classical guitar led him to transfer to Northwestern University, where he completed his studies in classical guitar under David Buch, John Holmquist and Anne Waller.
In 2001 Fareed co-founded the jam super-group Garaj Mahal, joined George Brooks' group Summit, featuring Zakir Hussein and Steve Smith and continues to record and tour with the Fareed Haque Group. More recently Fareed has become a staple of the 'Jamband' scene and was voted 'Most Valuable Player' at the 2002 High Sierra Music Festival.
In 2004 Fareed composed and performed his Lahara Double Concerto for Sitar/Guitar and Tabla. The work was premiered by The Chicago Sinfonietta, under the baton of maestro Paul Freeman, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, featuring tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain, to whom the work is dedicated. In 2006 Fareed was commissioned to compose a classical guitar concerto for the Fulcrum Point Ensemble. His Gamelan Concerto was premiered in May of '06 at The Harris Theatre in Millenium Park.
In 2007-8 Haque continues to tour, record and compose, extensively. He has recorded a new CD with legendary jazz organist Mel Rhyne, has appeared at numerous Guitar festivals with duo partner Goran Ivanovic, and will premiere his newest composition Pyramids for classical guitar for The Chicago Latin American Composers series at Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago. Haque continues to co-lead Garaj Mahal; the jam/jazz/world music group won an Independent Music Award in 07.
FAR-FLUNG MUSICAL INFLUENCES TO MERGE
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By Howard Reich
Tribune critic
March 21 2008
Thanks to his protean gifts, Chicagoan Fareed Haque has enjoyed concurrent careers as jazz guitarist, classical soloist and world-music virtuoso.
But this weekend he will merge all three of those roles—and others—in a single performance.
Partnering with the comparably versatile alto saxophonist Greg Osby, Haque will unveil original scores by both musicians that will traverse multiple genres. The very fact that the new band also will include Jim Feist, a virtuoso on classical Indian tabla, and Jason Smart, an avant-garde drummer formerly with the genre-defying Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, indicates the range of musical idioms at play.
Haque and Osby have spent the past several months writing music for the new ensemble, which theoretically will interweave American, Indian and South Asian musical influences. But it won't be until this week's rehearsals and performance that Haque, Osby and friends will know what they have created.
Or at least it seems that way.
"Actually, I know exactly how it's going to sound," counters Haque. "It's really hard to compose music without having a clear idea in your head of what it's going to sound like.
"What's always surprising is where it can go. When you open musicians up to a new concept, sometimes they freak out and say, 'Just tell me what to play, and I'll do that.' "Other musicians say, 'You've opened a door—let's go through it and see what happens.' "
In this case, the results could be either an exotic merger of several musical currents or a spectacular collision. But considering Haque and Osby's achievements as bandleaders, sidemen and composers, the venture looks extraordinarily promising, at least on paper.
That these far-flung musical forces will be convening not in a staid concert hall but in an informal loft setting —the River North offices of Nimrod Systems—seems likely to encourage a free flow of musical ideas. Indeed, it was the owner of the venue, impresario Waseem Jafar, who initiated the project.
"I had been in Minneapolis talking to Osby about putting something together for my space," says Jafar, who has presented percussionist-bandleader Kahil El'Zabar, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett and others in the space through his Five Percent Sessions organization.
"When I asked Osby what kind of music it was going to be, he said, 'I can compose it, but I can't describe it.' "
So everyone will have to wait until Saturday evening to hear what happens.
"All I can say is Jim Feist is a more groove-oriented tabla player than most, Jason Smart comes out of the avant-garde jam scene, and Greg and I both are interested in music that is linear," rather than harmonic, says Haque.
Don't miss Groundation with DJ Papa G at the Kinetic Playground on Friday, July 11th at 9pm. Tickets are $12 online and $15 at the door, 21+.
A unique blend of reggae, jazz, and dub, Groundation is a worldwide movement creating a global community of fans. This Northern California-based 9-piece group features jazz driven horns, African and Latin inspired percussion and amazing vocals straight from Kingston, Jamaica. Though their sound is instantly recognized as first-class Roots Reggae, influences of Jazz/Funk fusion and transcendental Dub ultimately help shape their music. Their live shows are bursting with energy and improvisation.
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