Thursday, May 15, 2008

Vishal Vaids' Ghazal Innovations






Ghazal is a Persian song form literally meaning “to hold conversation with the divine,” and VISHAL VAID is undoubtedly one of the genre's young masters. Since his first live concert was at age three, Vishal has raised passion and fury in global audiences with the sound of his unforgettable voice. Pliant in many styles, from classical concerts sung in Urdu and Hindi to fusion experiments with Moroccan Gnawa and electronic renderings, his voice is the ecstatic infusion of diverse sounds. The man behind Karsh Kale's three records, he has performed alongside Bill Laswell, Hassan Hakmoun, Talvin Singh and Alex Kirschner. Spurred by the timeless qawwali sounds Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan exposed the West to, Vishal is poised to start his own re-evolution. “The ghazal is another art form I’m just waiting to reinvent," he says. "I feel it coming out of world instrumentation; be it an Arabic violin, an Italian cellist, a saxophone, what have you. These are all different concepts you have to be open to.