Project Music

“The Sufi Gospel Project is a living proof that many different hallelujahs can exist in harmony. Traditional Western gospel melds with Indian classical sounds,and Indian spiritual texts are enriched by elements of Western poetry to create a sound that touches every soul. No matter what the language of the lyrics or the ethnicity of the sounds,there is but one language — the language of faith,” says Kalra. The band,which has created waves in the Delhi music scene over the past two years,will perform in Pune for the first time

during the Jadhavgadh Music Festival this weekend.

The idea for The Sufi Gospel Project struck her when she was invited to perform at the birth centenary of Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan at the Inayat Khan dargah in Delhi. “I had sung gospel in churches and at other venues but for the urz of Inayat Khan,I wanted to create a sound that blended faiths,” she says. And with that performance,Kalra began to explore music across barriers,and found that many renowned thinkers across the world had crossed over in their work too.

“I sang Persian poetry at this year’s Jahan-e-Khusro,the world Sufi music festival,and I chose a Persian piece because I wanted to see if one could still reach out to people in spite of the language barrier. In fact,in the Persian piece,I found beautiful crossovers of Hazrat Shah Niaz,a Sufi saint of the 19th century who says,Isa e mariyami manam,which means ‘Mary’s Christ am I’,” she says.

Kalra’s work is influenced by many of the world’s great thinkers — from William Blake to Rumi and Nanak. “A lot of people and things influence my work. Sufism means an acceptance of all humanity,and gospel is the truth. I find resonances of Sufism in gospel and gospel in bhakti,” she says.