WOMAD is to world music what Cannes is to film festivals. Founded by Peter Gabriel in 1980 - it is now one of the world’s largest and most prestigious world music festivals held every summer in the green fields of England, come rain or shine. The world’s most prominent bands vie to be on the listings. This summer of 2015 will be remembered as a milestone in the contemporary history of Baul and folk music with Shikor Bangladesh All Stars being selected to perform on the BBC’s Charlie Gillette stage in a mesmerising festival hostings with almost 120 artists from 53 countries. But who are Shikor Bangladesh All Stars and how did they hit the world music stage?
It’s a tale of a dhol player from Badda making friends with a Bangladeshi arts promoter based in London, both united by a love of music and the arts, and a desire to promote Bangladeshi culture. That dhol player was Nazrul Islam, regarded by many as Dhaka’s premiere dhol maestro, and the promoter was Runi Khan from Culturepot Global, regarded by many in the UK as Bangladesh’s cultural ambassador.
“From BanglaBeat to Afrobeat”
This unlikely duo first worked together when Runi Khan (together with Asia House, the award winning UK charity promoting music from Asia) put on the critically acclaimed concert titled “From Bangla Beat to Afro Beat” in 2006, at London’s prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall, bringing Bangladeshi music to Britain with the world music audience in mind. Khan was trying to broaden the audience for Bangladeshi culture, by aligning it with World Music, spanning traditional to contemporary, performed by Bangladeshi’s from both home and abroad.
“A resounding success” - BBC World
Nazrul was at the time affirming himself as one of Dhaka’s most outstanding and versatile percussionists, playing with everyone from the Bauls, to the folk legends and virtuosos such as Mumtaz, as well as the new rock and fusion bands like Arnob and Bangla. His recording work was prolific, gaining him respect throughout the industry in Bangladesh and the deshi communities abroad. He had performed many times in the UK, but playing with Arnob at “Bangla beat to Afro beat,” he notices something different – the audience for once is not purely Bangladeshi, but a proper khichuri of deshis and foreigners and, moreover, covers an age span of teenage adults to octogenarians. He is chuffed that his music is reaching new audiences, and that his humble dhol is representing his culture in a different way.
“Where ever I am, when I play my Dhol, I am in Bangladesh”
Nazrul Islam Runi Khan throughout this period used Nazrul and his dhol as her primary musical contact in Bangladesh. This was not just for his quality, but also for the friendships he had forged with the musicians she was bringing over. At the SAARC closing ceremony, Lokkhi Terra performed with 5 specially picked percussion maestros from the SAARC nations. Nazrul was there with his Dhol representing Bangladesh. At the Dhaka World Music Festival (DWMF), Nazrul got to show off his band-leading skills to a larger audience, by presenting his wife and accomplished folk singer Baby Aktar, as well as the Bauls to much critical acclaim.
After the DWMF, Runi Khan keeps in the slipstream and teams up with various private funders in Dhaka, to sponsor a series of collaborations between Nazrul’s team of traditional players and Lokkhi Terra from the UK.
“The tradition of Bangladeshi music is little known in the west” - Simon Broughton
The big breakthrough came in 2014 when Runi Khan convinced Simon Broughton to focus on Bangladesh at his Songlines encounters festival for 2015 - featuring traditional Bangladeshi music, and Nazrul’s collaborations with Lokkhi Terra. Simon goes to Dhaka to meet Nazrul and his team, travelling to Kushtia to hear the sounds. Simultaneously, a huge breakthrough - interest in what Bangladesh has to offer is also shown from WOMAD.
A collective decision is made between Runi Khan, Nazrul Islam and Kishon Khan from Lokkhi Terra to create an album to show off Nazrul’s traditional music to be presented at Encounters and WOMAD. A new band is born as Shikor Bangladesh All Stars, a collective of seven musicians hand picked by Nazrul – comprising of singing phenomenon Baby Akter, the sage Baul singer Rob Fakir, the dotara maestro Mokaddas Ali, Anup Kumar Mandal, Mobaraq Hossain and Dhaka’s leading bansuri player Jalal Ahmed, weaving his flute around the vocals. Representing the next generation was multi-instrumentalist and singer Labik Kamal Gaurob, who would also be the English spokesperson for this grass root ensemble. And Runi Khan, having given them their name Shikor, would make it happen and manage them overseas with Nazmus Saquib Choudhury coordinating logistics locally on behalf of Culturepot Global. Both bands are formally booked for Womad 2015.
“One of the highlights of the festival”
The arrival of the band in London weeks before their debut, this was the beginning of some seriously hard graft. In a disused English pub, instruments all laid out - Kishon and various members of his band would meet Shikor Bangladesh All Stars regularly for rehearsals, spending hour upon hour, day after day perfecting their tunes to meet the exacting standards of the groups that would be playing at the WOMAD festival. The atmosphere was so special that musicians from all over London started turning up just to check out the vibe. Nazrul sat in on a private percussion masterclass by the musicians from Irakere, also visiting London to perform at the famous Ronnies Scotts. He also reconnected with other old friends from DWMF – introducing his band to the international scene. Rob Fakir was the image of spiritual purity in his robes of white linen, sitting at ease amongst the London music set. Shikor were quickly asked to guest with Soothsayers the day before their WOMAD performance. Their performance at Camden’s Forge was breathtaking. “A pleasure playing with these musicians. The combination of their depth and spirituality and their awareness of how to hype up an audience is very special” says Idris Rahman of Soothsayers. Nazrul says the evening was daroon and talked of the energy on stage and the mesmeric spa match between the percussionists. The next day, on July 25, a bright sunny day, Shikor brought the soulful poetry and sounds of the Baul tradition in its purest form to a new eager audience at the WOMAD festival – it was a resounding success. “One of the highlights of the festival,” declared Lopa Kothari of BBC Radio 3.
The following day, the rain and thick mud did not deter hundreds in their Wellington boots from coming to the Big Red Tent to hear Lokkhi Terra and the highlight was undoubtedly the big band’s collaboration on stage with the Shikor Bangladesh All Stars – breaking new ground in the world music scene and getting everyone moving on their feet.
“Our musical traditions are not just relevant to the Bangladeshi diaspora, but to music lovers worldwide” says Runi Khan. “UNESCO put Baul music on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2005. Shikor Bangladesh All Stars brought these traditions and more with their contemporary collaborations with Lokkhi Terra to WOMAD 2015, putting that cultural heritage status tangibly and permanently onto the world music map.”
Shikor Bangladesh All Stars will soon be releasing their debut CD Soul of Bengal, produced by Funkiwala Records with support from the Itefaq and Summit Group. Culturepot Global and the Shikor team would like to thank the Beximco Group for their generous contribution towards this first time opportunity of putting Bangladesh’s traditional Baul and Folk heritage on the global world music scene at WOMAD and all who have over the years lent support to this musical journey.