Jazzing it up with NAPA’s music ensemble

The much anticipated musical soiree, NAPA exhibited blend of Eastern and Western music with unique instruments.

KARACHI: The second day event of the Napa Alumni Music Ensemble (NAME) was a musical night that had, according to Nafees Ahmed, “an element of surprise” to it. The much anticipated musical soiree exhibited a beautiful blend of Eastern and Western music performed with the help of instruments including the sitar, tabla, acoustic guitars, drums and a keyboard.

The night commenced with sitar maestro, Nafees Ahmed and tabla player, Basheer Khan and their take on the evergreen song “Hello” by Lionel Richie. The audience was so mesmerized that the medley was performed twice on persistent requests.

The act was followed by six performers with Khalid Khan of Aaroh and Afaq Adnan on guitars. The band comprised of Jason and Emu who played at the drums and the keyboard for the entirety of the show respectively.

The star of the evening was the guitarist Adnan Afaq- dubbed Adnan Y by fans with reference to legendary guitarist Steve Y , who is also a professor at the Napa Academy. Another performer who stole the show was Jason who showed his mastery standing out for his strong sense of definite beats which kept the audience enchanted throughout the night. The piece performed by Afaq and Emu did justice to the brilliant musical line up, culminating a beautifully composed song.

However, all was not hunky-dory and weakness’ were felt with Khalid Khan’s instrumental piece.

While the audience failed to impress in number and the event itself started after the scheduled time, Napa’s musical night drew a grand closing with Arshad Mehmood as the host of the entire celebratory affair.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.