Fused Tunes

“Both Sufi and Jazz are alike in many ways — they are both twisted and yet spiritual. That’s why we decided to fuse these two genres of music,” says Raina. While Raina’s singing has been influenced by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and folk musician Alam Lohar,Alok is “heavily inspired by progressive jazz and rock bands like Steely Dan,Emerson Lake and Palmer and Joe Satriani”. The two have known each other for almost five years and have worked on several projects together. “We wanted to create our own unique sound and that hunger to experiment with music made us come up with Sufi Jazz,” says Alok,who is a guitarist and vocalist with Pune based band Jammer. Interestingly,Raina has still not selected the numbers he will be performing tonight. He will decide on them basing on “the spiritual vibes from the audience”.

This,however,is not Raina’s first tryst with a commercial Sufi Jazz performance. While he has earlier performed in Jodhpur and at Prithvi Theatre,it is Alok’s first fusion show. “I am excited and thrilled. I am sure the audience will love our experiment,” says Alok.

So far,Raina has no plans of releasing an album. “This genre is new and I want people to first understand this music. After that,I will think about an album,” he says.