French musicians and Baloch folk band put a new twist on Danay pe Dana

The musicians performed at L’Alliance Francaise on Friday night.

KARACHI:

On Friday night, Trio Guerbigny and Pastoral Baloch Group came together to play a special blend of music. The French trio, with its guitar, saxophone and violin, and the Baloch sitting cross-legged with their rabab, banjo and dhol, put a new twist on the familiar ‘Danay pe Dana’ for a crowd that was also a fusion of foreigners and Karachi wallahs.

Folk dancer Abdul Haq circled around the stage to the rhythm of the music.

“The Alliance Francaise invited us to Islamabad to promote Pak-French harmony after French engineers died in the Mariott bomb blast in 2002,” Akhtar Chanal Zehri, the father of Danay pe Dana, explained to The Express Tribune. “They fell in love with our music over there and we were sent to France to collaborate with the band.”

Zehri has been singing the song for about 20 years now. He performed it for Pakistan Television, Pakistan Radio and also won a pride of performance award for it. But the classic achieved new heights with its interpretation in the vastly popular televised Coke Sudio series with Komal Rizvi.

The Pastoral Baloch Group consists of Raja Bhaijan on the banjo, Zahid Zehri on the dhol and Yameen Salahi on the rabab. Abdul Haq, the folk dancer, is also a member. Except for Bhaijan, their band member from Lyari, all other members are from Quetta, Balochistan.

“I love the way we play together,” said Bhaijan. “I have been playing the banjo since I was a child and I also make it.”

The band is now working towards the release of their album and plans on undertaking more collaborative work with Pakistani musicians. Hadiqa Kyani, who used to be known as the nightingale of the Pakistani music scene, has also approached the group.

The group is known beyond Pakistan as well as it has performed in the US, Japan, England and China. But Zehri felt that they might be underappreciated in Pakistan. “Not everyone can understand Balochi or Brahvi,” he remarked, while referring to the languages they sing in. However, he was not unaware of the irony that he did not understand what the Frenchmen sang and vice versa on Friday evening. “Music has no language,” he quipped with a smile.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2011.