The Pakistan Blues

The office I work in is fairly small.

The computers are typical ancient Microsoft office fare that are held together with chewing gum and paperclips.

As we're all engaged in work, one or three of my coworkers insist on music to work by and my computer is the only one with speakers.

So, I'll put on some youtube type uploads that are long playlists of unobtrusive music so we can work, hear each other, and hear our phone conversations. 

I put on music I can 'stand' to listen to.

The woman in receivables who works closest to me is about ten years my senior, and although she doesn't complain about what I out on, is really only happy if I out on a narrow window of music from about 1965 through 1975.

The millennial in billing has no complaints, but if I put on anything from about 1995 through 2005, especially R&B, then he's grooving to it. Asking him about his tastes, he did recommend an old salsa album to me, and opened for me a whole world of Hector Lavoe and others!

And then there is the woman in purchasing from Pakistan. She's in her 70s, came to the US about twenty years ago or more, and is a sweetheart! Self-admittedly, she doesn't hear all that well. But she sometimes perks up at the sound of some of the music and expresses her appreciation.

I'm in first, and usually at the office alone for a good hour or more organizing work, trouble shooting lost drivers, taking in early deliveries, analyzing economic factors, and a bunch of other boring spread-sheet type office BS. So, I listen to what I like. Sometimes at top volume. Sometimes heavy metal, sometimes old swing music from the 40s, sometimes my favorites from the baroque era, etc. One day, because I don't know country and western all that well, it was western swing music. 

My friend from Pakistan often comes in a little early. Maybe a half hour before the others. On just a few occasions, I'm playing the blues and when I do, she perks up a bit and says how she really likes the music.

I find this has happened most when it happened to be John Lee Hooker.

At some point, much like with the young guy in billing, I've asked her what HER taste is, and she usually can't recall specific names, but one day, she came in and said I think you might like Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan.

I hadn't heard the name, and as soon as time allowed, looked up this individual and found that his music is WIDELY popular and very well regarded. He appears on some of the most prestigious lists of 'greatest singers', so I found an album of his on-line, about an hour and a half of music consisting of about eight songs.

It was a delight to me! It is pretty far out of my field, and being a lyrics girl who doesn't savvy the lingo, I'll probably only return to him occasionally.

But what struck me was that his style - although vastly different than the blues - had this familiarity.

Typical for the instrumentation of the region, the strings had a drone-like quality. Typical of the region, the scales for the melodies are completely unlike western scales and cause most folks to think of the melodies as sounding 'out of tune' to western ears so accustomed to our diatonic scales.

But the formalized microtones in what he was singing immediately reminded me of the natural micro-tonality in the blues!

What's more, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's singing brought a sincere sense of pathos to the songs that instantly recognized as being similar to John Lee Hooker's vocal delivery! 

I've since recommended a John Lee Hooker album to her, and I hope she finds something pleasantly familiar in it.

I hope the next time I find myself listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, I have a translation of the lyrics or a better understanding of the scales so I can get even more out of it!