{"id":102,"date":"2006-09-19T12:22:13","date_gmt":"2006-09-19T12:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2006\/09\/19\/weird-music-great-listening\/"},"modified":"2006-09-19T12:22:13","modified_gmt":"2006-09-19T12:22:13","slug":"weird-music-great-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2006\/09\/19\/weird-music-great-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"“Weird” music, great listening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Audiences watching percussionist Syud Momtaz Ahmed \u201907 perform at Wabash know the incredible focus, experimentation, and joy he brings to his music.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the rest of the world is going to hear it, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taz, as he\u2019s known to us at Wabash, is the percussionist for Ajob, a band from his native Bangladesh that is the youngest group ever to sign with that country\u2019s Ektaar label. The group\u2019s long awaited debut CD was released in September 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAjob, which literally means \u2018Weird\u2019, is not just another intrigue-junkie fusion band with no teeth,\u201d writes the website Banglamusic.com.<\/i> \u201cAlmost all the songs of their self-titled album exude musical experimentation of the finest order.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bangladesh\u2019s The Star<\/i><\/span> weekend magazine is similarly enthusiastic about fusion bands like Taz\u2019s Ajob, which often blends the lyrics of the Baul tradition with western instrumentation and rhythms: \u201cBe it the lyrics, the tune, the fusion of traditional instruments and western instruments, or the catchy western beats mixed in with the husky, spiritual sounds of Bangladeshi folk music, fusion and remixes have created a stepping stone for the new and improved Bangladeshi music world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Taz, the music provides a necessary counterbalance to his studies and research as a chemistry major at Wabash. Once aspiring to a career in medicine, the senior has spent the past three summers doing research in materials chemistry and plan to pursue his doctorate in that field. He also plans always to have music part of his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is a hobby that I love,\u201d Taz says. \u201cIt\u2019s a great escape for me; when I am playing music, I don\u2019t have a care in the world. As a percussionist, I have that ability to make a song festive, angry, or sad. Music is my way of expressing how I think and how I feel about things; my perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The percussionist says his band\u2019s first CD \u201cis made with a lot of love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this huge generation gap in music in my country,\u201d Taz explains. \u201cMost young people have migrated to Western music, but Ajob is attracting the younger audience in a way that other Bangladeshi bands don\u2019t. We hope that they find the music interesting, but we want them to understand the deeper metaphorical meanings of the old, traditional folk tunes. They\u2019re part of our culture, our heritage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taz will be featured in the Fall 2006 issue of Wabash Magazine.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> or here<\/a> to hear music from the CD.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audiences watching percussionist Syud Momtaz Ahmed \u201907 perform at Wabash know the incredible focus, experimentation, and joy he brings to his music. Now the rest of the world is going to hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}