The young and charismatic Tabla wizard Cassius Khan wows audience in Birmingham

May 2, 2011 - PRLog -- (Birmingham UK, August 12th 1990) -

Cassius Khan, the young Canadian Tabla and Ghazal wizard, was absolutely stellar in his  six hour performance of ghazals and a stupendous tabla solo recital last night at the new Centennial Centre in Birmingham last night.

Khan dazzled his audience by playing the tabla and singing at the same time, a feat, he says, accomplished by no one so far as a professional musician. And to see him in his element is astonishing. You really could not tell that it was one artist doing two things at the same time, and yes, Khan made it effortless.

In front of a rather intimate crowd of about 250, the young and extremely adorable mop haired Khan apologized for his cracking voice as he was reaching his maturity as a vocalist. "Sorry for that", he would say when his voice cracked,"it's tough getting older," which would bring the audience to peals of laughter.

Coming to a close of his rather hectic 40 + city tour of Great Britain, Europe, North America and the South Pacific, the young Khan showed no signs of slowing down. "I am really tired, but when I am playing music, all the fatigue disappears. Hopefully after this, I can go home and take some rest before I start school again. And I am really missing playing hockey with my team!"

Khan shone in the singing of "Mere Humnafas mere Humnawah" set to Raag Darbaari, in which he said he sang a rather difficult time signature to. "The singing style is known as taranum ang gayaki, or recitational style singing, which is only sung by the great ghazal singer Farida Khannum-ji at the moment, but I am slowly getting the hang of it," Khan exclaimed enthusiastically.

In his tabla solo Khan was beaming as he rolled off complicated drum rolls and compositions, and played a two hour tabla recital pausing only to wipe his face, adjust his curly mop of hair, or drink water. He presented an extremely defined dexterity and for his young age, was twice as explosive as a tabla player than the great Ustad Zakir Hussain.

"Ustad Zakirji is the greatest tabla player to walk this earth, and I am not even worthy to be the dust of his shoes," said Khan," but I hope that my musical journey will bring me more knowledge as i get older."

The biggest surprise for Khan that evening was the attendance of the Pakistani Ghazal king, Ustad Mehdi hassan, who also had a concert in London. Hassan hugged Khan and blessed him for a job well done. " This young artist will prove to be a great human being," Hassan said in Urdu," and I would very much like for Cassius to play with me tomorrow. There is a lot of things I can show him. The fact that he sings ghazals and plays tabla at the same time amazes me. And he sings my ghazals very well with his variations, and he also played a great solo tabla."

The beaming and excited Khan sang " Zindagi me to sabhi pyar kiya karte he" for Mehdi Hassan, "I am speechless, and I am thankful to Mata Saraswati for this amazing moment in my life," said Khan about Mehdi Hassan attending his concert.