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Najma’s utter determination, her bravery and her confidence.
Qareeb brought considerable success
and Najma’s recording career continued with Atish, a second release for Triple Earth, in 1989. What might have been a disastrous mixture of musical genres, a messy step into that dangerous territory of jazz fusion, instead produced two records of exceptional depth.
Najma’s contract with Triple Earth was for two albums only and a new direction presented itself when she was approached by Sony Japan to take part in an advertise- ment for a major Japanese bank. After the advert had been successfully completed, Sony then expressed an interest in a whole album of similar material. From this oppor- tunity, Pukar was released in 1992. “This was one of the happiest periods of my musical life, I think. It was an amazing experience, but one that I really wouldn’t want to repeat. I wrote, produced and organised the whole thing – hired the musicians, chose the studio, basically got on with every aspect of the project. The album led to a short tour of Japan and that was also amazing.”
As she went forward, Najma continual- ly shifted her musical ground with charac- teristic self-confidence. She also began act- ing in the late ’90s, with roles in four the- atre productions and one television series.
The next album was Forbidden Kiss, a set of Bollywood songs, recorded in New York with Chris Rael, leader of Church Of Betty, who Najma had met at a concert in Vienna. “Chris was amazing, he spoke flu- ent Hindi and we connected very quickly.” A few months later Chris invited Najma to come to New York and record. During the
Najma in 1987, with Talvin Singh
session, Najma received a call from Trini- fold, the management company for Robert Plant. Robert wanted to invite Najma to work with him and Jimmy Page on their Unplugged concert for MTV. Najma remembers coming back into the studio and innocently asking “do you know who someone called Robert Plant is?”
J
ust as remarkable, then, are Najma’s collaborations with a daz- zling range of artists. She has worked with Jah Wobble on Take Me To God, with Andy Summers
on The Golden Wire, with jazz saxophonist Steve Coleman, and also with Apache Indi- an on Arranged Marriage. In 1994 she joined Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for that MTV Unplugged special, and their per- formance together of The Battle Of Ever- more was included on the subsequent album No Quarter.
Other collaborations have included
Rishte, with Grammy-nominated American guitarist Gary Lucas, on the title track of the Jethro Tull album Dot Com, with Steve Copeland… and, oh yes, with Philip Glass too. That is quite some pedigree of musical companionship and Najma has shone throughout all of these adventures.
Subsequent albums have included
Fariyaad, which explores more explicitly the spirituality of Sufism in what Najma described as an ongoing quest for authen- ticity. The album is dedicated to Najma’s father, Mr. Saleem Akhtar, who passed in 2004, and has highlights of beautiful and emotive instrumentation and singing. The Observer wrote that “the pure soaring arc of Najma’s voice remains above emulation.” Personally, Fariyaad is my favourite of all of Najma’s body of work.
Najma now
Najma’s current project is Five Rivers, another step forward in her vision of musi- cal exploration. She describes the album as “a musical journey, starting in India with the Ganges, then to Africa and the River Niger, to the UK with the River Thames, on to Ireland with the River Shannon and finally ending at the Mississippi Delta.” Five Rivers features interpretations of songs by Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Dono- van, Bryan MacLean of Love, Rev Gary Davis and Jagger & Richards. “I’m very excited about this album. It is new. It is fresh, and as far as I know, it is the first time that the poetic emphasis of the Urdu Ghazal and the western tradition of romantic poetry have been explored and developed using western musical genres.”
Without question, Najma has a vision of musical universality that burns as a life- long passion. She speaks of her music as ethereal and spiritual but remains ground- ed in a life of religious belief and musical discipline.
So will the real Najma please stand up? Characteristics that come to my mind are her bravery, confidence, determina- tion, her musical fearlessness, her intelli- gence, optimism and passion. And just as important, perhaps, is the spirit of inde- pendence with which Najma has always pursued her vision.
And what of the future? “I have quite a number of new songs in the vein of Five Rivers, so developing those for recording is up there on the agenda. I would also like to go back to my roots and explore the pure Sufi aspect of my music. Perhaps even a Qawwali album. But whatever my situa- tion, I’m always ready to sing.”
najmaakhtar.com F
Photo: Ian Anderson
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