Photo taken from the February 1990 issue of the Herald | Arif Mahmood
Julie tried her best to be a normal person. She didn't want to live in a five-star hotel. She was quite happy to walk around on her own, catch crowded buses and eat food from street vendors.
Haroon. Any more acting plans for the future?
Hussain. Currently, I'm doing the musical score for two telefilms and am acting in one of them. The last time I did a film project was Questions, where I played a terrorist — probably because I look like one!
Haroon. Adnan, at the concert that night you seemed far more comfortable playing the jazz piece than you did the raags. Do you think jazz is more your forte?
Khan. I have lived abroad most of my life, so my exposure to Indian classical music is fairly recent. I suppose I am more comfortable with jazz because I have been playing it that much longer, and also because classical music is a much more disciplined genre.
I started playing music when I was about six and didn't discover Indian classical music until I was fifteen. So, essentially, I had a lot of catching up to do. I remember my father playing a cassette for me when I was fifteen — Amjad Ali's Durga.
He said this is from our part of the world, you must listen to it. And I continued rewinding it and listening to it from early evening until midnight. By the end of it I was nearly in tears. I couldn't believe that for all these years I had missed out on something so special.
I felt like I had lived my life like a poor man sitting on this broken-down chair, not realising that underneath this chair was a treasure chest that I couldn't see because 1 hadn't bothered to look.
Haroon. Zakir, you received a doctorate in world music at the University of Washington in Seattle. Currently, the West is opening its doors to new kinds of music from a variety of cultures. Why do you think that World Beat – as it is called – has become such a major music phenomenon?
Hussain. I feel that young people today are much more receptive to different kinds of music. Also, they now have greater access to recordings from all over the world. I was in Paris and went t o see Ustad Fateh Ali Khan in concert. It was quite an experience. The crowd was going crazy even though they didn't have any idea what the words meant.
World Beat works because it has rhythm. The words aren't really crucial — you can get up and dance. Even if you don't understand what the song is all about. Classical music – Indian or otherwise – is not that accessible as a genre.
Rather, it's the kind of music which entails going within yourself to discover what you're all about —knowing that, feeling that and being aware of it. Classical music requires a certain amount of seriousness, a certain commitment.
It makes you acutely aware of everything around you. It enhances the power of your senses. It magnifies your abilities in so many different fields. Moreover, classical music gives me the confidence to play anywhere in the world. I know I don't have to ape anyone.
If I'm doing something with Herbie Hancock, I can meet him on equal terms. I don't have to kneel down and think he's God, because I have as much to offer him as he has to offer me. My classical training allows me to experience and appreciate many varieties of music without losing my identity.
I can experiment with jazz or blues and still have a base to come back to. In other words, I have a home. And that's what I always tell young people. Don’t forget where you come from. Don't forget who you are. You can wear anything, you can experience anything, but at the end of the day, when you shut your bedroom lights at night, you should sleep easy because you have an identity of your own.
If you are a crow who wants to walk like a peacock, you may forget your own walk. In the long run, maybe it’s better to be a crow and merely admire the peacock instead.
This article was originally published in the Herald's February 1990 issue. To read more subscribe to the Herald in print.