Times of India on Cheb i sabbah

[Guest guest]

Hit & Mix

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  [ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2002

12:00:00 AM ]

His album, Krishna Leela, is a big hit in the US and Europe. DJ

Cheb-I-Sabbah shares his musical influences with Lisa Tsering

It’s like being in a remote, incense-shrouded Hindu temple

â€" except for the neon-lit oxygen bar in one corner and the

swimming pool outside.

Backflip, a dance club attached to San Francisco’s Phoenix

Hotel (a favourite with travelling rock bands), has taken on a

distinctly spiritual air. DJ Cheb-I-Sabbah is in the house, and

he’s attracted a clientele that’s part young, Indian-

American scenesters, part prowling singles, and part just plain

lovers of musical exotica.

 

Incidentally, pop music’s newest nomad isn’t new at all.

Cheb’s been spinning records for 35 years, but he’s

riding his biggest ever wave of popularity, thanks to the release

of his new album, Krishna Leela. The album has become a

runaway hit in clubs from San Francisco to Paris to Moscow,

reached No 1 position on the US world-music charts, and will

soon be released in India by Times Music.

With Cheb as producer, vocalists Baby Sreeram and Radhika

Rajiv take turns lending their Carnatic and Hindustani styles to

classical bhajans on the album. They are aided by Saraswati

veena player AK Devi, violinist Akkarai S Subba Lakshmi and

sarod artiste K Shridhar. Cheb has divided the album into two

halves â€" one devoted to Carnatic interpretations of Krishna

bhajans and the other exploring a Hindustani sound â€" while

backing it up with rhythms from drummer Karsh Kale, bassist

Bill Laswell, flautist Deepak Ram and others.

Taking a break from setting up the turntables at Backflip, Cheb

ducks outside, fires up a clove cigarette, and describes how he

put the sounds together. “With Krishna Leela, I recorded the

Indian musicians first. Then, I layered on the beat, and added

Karsh Kale and Laswell overdubs. Then, I mixed it, and mixed it

again. Mastering all of this is tricky,� he elaborates.

Cheb says that the joy expressed in bhajans suits itself perfectly

to dance music. “We all have this longing for the divine. You

don’t need to understand the language to understand the

feeling of bhakti.� Cheb himself is as international as his

music, which he dubs “outernational�. Say ‘hello’

to him, and you might get a ‘namaste’ or even a Tibetan

‘tashi delek’ in reply, in his soft Arabic/French accent, a

souvenir of his youth spent in Algeria.

Cheb moved to Paris in 1964, spinning American soul music in

clubs there. In the ’70s, he worked as a club DJ spinning

African and Arabian pop from cassettes and CDs. And when he

settled in San Francisco in the ’80s, he soon established

himself as one of the area’s most illustrious concert

promoters, bringing artistes like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to a new

audience in the United States.

Cheb-I-Sabbah has produced a trilogy of albums for a visionary

San Francisco label called Six Degrees. His first Shri Durga,

released in 1999, was based on ragas; while the second, Maha

Maya, became a smash club hit with its collection of remixes by

Brit Asian pop masters, as yet largely unknown in America â€"

people like Bally Sagoo, State of Bengal and Transglobal

Underground.

Ask him about his love for Indian music, and he remarks,

“The quarter tones in Indian music are close to the Arabic

music I grew up with. And now that I’ve met more of these

heavy-duty Indian classical musicians, I appreciate that music

even more.�

In the pipeline now is an album on the women singers of

Morocco, but before that, Cheb wants to plan a concert trip to

India later this year. Indian devotional music is being welcomed

in the West for a reason, says Cheb. “There seems to be a

need right now to be closer to something higher. Politics and

people will let you down, and life can be very disappointing. At

such a time, when you hear Krishna’s flute, how can you

resist?�