Thursday, May 14, 2009

Jawad Ali & KS Chitra - "Bi Amr Al Hob"

A few weeks ago, the young Saudi singer Jawad Al Ali released his new 2009 album titled "Bi Amr Al Hob."

What distinguishes Jawad Al Ali from the scores of other Rotana-supported Khaleeji singers? This determining factor is clearly his passion for fusion and global interpretation of music. His musical style is more similar to that of the Kuwaiti group Guitara than to his fellow Saudis such as Abdo or Abdul Majeed Abdullah. 
Jawad most definitely isn't afraid to take advantage of the influence of the Khaleej's massive South Asian population. He has previously filmed a music video with a Bollywood theme and has also sung some Hindi lyrics on a television show.
But the 2009 album,"Bi Amr El Hob," represents a new, grander effort at building a bridge across the Arabian Sea. In the album, Jawad works with famed Indian playback singer KS Chitra to produce a beautiful duet - and the album's title song.



The song appears in three different versions on the album:
  1. Hindi
  2. Hindi/Arabic
  3. Turkish/Hindi/Arabic
Needless to say, the track itself is a gorgeous blend of vintage orchestration and new-age fusion. At the beginning, one hears Chitra and Jawad race through intricate Indian scales and then the track progesses into grand Oriental orchestration with an always subtle tabla.
A high point of the track is listening to Chitra's high-pitched melifluous voice glide over the Arab orchestration. 
I find only one aspect of the track detracting. One hears, for example at 2:07, an eerie "voice" of technical garbage. I would have loved to hear more natural vocals in this computer's place - whether it be Chitra's or Jawad's. But this is only a miniscule detraction; this track is yet impressive.

In my opinion, I've been swept by "Bi Amr El Hob" to an extent that the other tracks on the album are not worth mentioning. In this I mean that they are no different (to me) from other Khaleeji songs. Khaleeji audiences with more understanding of the lyrics might better embrace these other tracks. 

Overall, congratulations to both Jawad Al Ali and KS Chitra on this accomplishment. Hopefully, such partnerships shall continue both in music and in global politics.

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