The Wrath Of (Cassius) Khan

Jan. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- An internationally renowned prodigy on the Indian classical music scene helped raise money last night for flood-ravaged Pakistan. Cassius Khan, New Westminster's Ghazal/Tabla Wizard, wowed the audience at the Kay Meek Centre Last night with his indelible charm, scintillating ghazals and mind boggling tabla skills. Khan is the only professional performing artist in the world who can simultaneously play the Tabla and sing Ghazals – an important genre of Indian classical singing.
  Ghazals are tricky to execute on their own as the poetic form consists of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. Then to be able to factor in the drum beat is a rare talent that Khan says came to him naturally.
“The tabla is quite a complicated instrument,” he explained. “It require a lot of concentration and strength.” The pair of hand drums also has a completely unique sound and a language of its own. Playing the tabla requires the extensive use of your fingers and palms in various configurations to create a wide variety of different sounds.
  “Anything that you can play on any percussive instrument in the world can be mimicked on the tabla, but anything you play on the tabla can not be mimicked by any other drum,” said Khan," and ghazals are Urdu poetry written by both ancient and newer poets and I sing them in ragas of Hindustani classical music. The trick for me, is to combine the two simultaneously."
  Khan, who performed alongside his wife Amika Kushwaha who played the harmonium, was showered with applause and cheers in his performance last night, as he skillfully wove his rich voice and intricate fingers into one. He left the audience entranced when he performed a tabla solo recital at the end of the show, and received a standing ovation after his performance. One listener was so entranced by Khan's charms and good looks that she asked him to autograph her arm. "I won't be washing this arm in a long time,"she said."I am so in love with his hair, his looks, and his art!"
  Khan, who is of Indian decent, was born in Fiji and then came to Canada with his family in the seventies before going back to Fiji for a period of four years when he was just coming into his early teens. While growing up in Fiji, Khan didn’t care much for his parents’ taste in music, even though Indian pop was probably what other kids his age were into. Instead he started listening to classical Indian music. His mom and dad, Naimatullah and Razia, took him to his first concert of Mehdi Hassan – famously known as the “King of Ghazal” when he was only a few months old. “’You were so quiet and your eyes were so big as you watched him perform," Khan recalls his mom saying.
  At a young age Khan released his first CD and embarked on an international tour, and some years later he performed in the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City. “I had no idea how huge that was,” he said. “And I didn’t even know what the Carnegie Hall was. I was asked to participate as a performing artist there by some Indian organization and my manager at the time thought it would be good exposure. So, off I went and I sang a Ghazal there and the audience loved the fact that I sang while playing tabla”
  Khan said that some people were not too happy to hear that he was helping to raise money for Pakistan. "I am a secular person and my religion is music. My wife's family is Hindu, and my family is Muslim. I have no time for these people who have ostracized me for helping to raise money for Pakistan. Some people told me ' how do you know that the money is not going to extremists?' It is sad and unfortunate that fundamentalists have ruined the name of religion, and unfortunately Pakistan is known around the world as a country that harbors such people, but, we cannot take it out on the whole nation. Many of those people don't like the fundamentalists and are abhorred by them. I saw images on television of mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders, people weeping and wailing, who have probably lost all of their meagre possessions and their loved ones... if we don't help them what type of humans are we? I cannot live with that on my conscience, so I told these people, "do what you want, but I am a musician and I am going to help."
  This week the United Nations stated more than 3.4 million hectares of crops have been lost due to the flooding. Eight million people are in need of humanitarian aid, the nation stated. Students from the Kamal Music Centre also performed at the fundraiser and Z Design put on a fashion show featuring traditional and modern Pakistani clothing. All proceeds from the event went to the Red Cross to assist with flood relief efforts in Pakistan.