November 26, 2019
Karachiites witnessed three great socials over the last few weekends-
The Royal Embassy of #Denmark in Islamabad brought in the “Rocqawali”
The Goethe Institute of Karachi brought in “Cyminology”.
The Italian Consul in Karachi brought in Chef Vittorio Castellani (aka Chef Kumalé)
Rocqawali blends “traditional Sufi music in a 21st Century version of guitars & drums”.
In 2004, Jonas (Rocqawali’s guitarist) traveled to Pakistan to seek out his roots. Here he met lead singer, Ejaz, who hails from Mehr Ali & Sher Ali Khan, Pakistan’s Qawal family. Drummer Stephan joined the band in 2012, followed with Tin (their guitarist), himself from a Persian-Sufi background. The best part- all are Danish citizens!
Cyminology, a “Berlin based quartet, combines Persian poetry” with, essentially, Jazz.
“This subtle yet dynamic, softly-pulsating music takes its cue from the sound of the Persian-language poets- Rumi, Hafiz & Khayyam”. As an extra, they performed a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and that too in Urdu! Cymin Samawatie is the lead vocalist, Benedikt Jahnel on the piano, Ralf Schwarz played a beautiful Double Bass and Ketan Bhatti topped off the performance on the drums. The best part- all are German citizens!
As an added extra to this music-cultural fusion, is Chef Kumalé, a “Gastro-Nomad”.
A career spanning over 27 years has differentiated Chef Kumalé from many other “chefs” in the world- he’s a traveling-journalist-food blogger extraordinaire! His visit to Karachi was primarily to learn Pakistani food – while he gave a few Italian training sessions, Chef Kumalé immersed himself into Pakistani culture and food to add to his vast gastronomic & traveling repertoire and blog.
The ICING –
All three events have fused MULTIPLE cultures into a common platform people enjoy … MUSIC & FOOD, regardless of language, race, ethnicity, religion or nationality; and they have done it with respect and dignity to the original chefs/authors/performers/ music.
Our Country, along with India & Iran, has one of the oldest & richest cultures in the world – with poets, mysticism, love, myriad romantic languages & food havens – a cultural dream for any artist; and for that matter, for any nation. What better for peace & cohesion than a fusion of these CULTURES with each other and with contemporary western thinking – just what we, and the world, needs, eh!
Dinshaw Avari- Trying my Hand at Blogging! 