As a townie, and living in Columbus since single digits when my parents left the Army, it’s no exaggeration to say the Wexner Center for the Arts has had the biggest influence on shaping my taste and expanding my cultural life.
This introduction of Brooklyn-based Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab to Columbus audiences is a perfect example of what the Wex does better than anywhere else in town: showcase artists who don’t neatly fit within genre lines in a way that stands out. The October 16 show in Mershon continues the center’s proud jazz and world music traditions with an artist who isn’t a throwback, who isn’t beholden to the worlds she’s come from and the music she draws from but who uses those materials to bring a unique, personal world to life.
Arooj Aftab, image by Soichiro Suizu, provided by the Wexner Center for the Arts
Aftab’s 2021 album Vulture Prince is one of my favorite records of the year so far. She sharpens the song-based approach started with her 2015 debut Bird Under Water, keeping some of the lush textures of her more ambient/minimalist follow-up Siren Islands, for a record of mourning and celebration that doesn’t fit neatly into any boxes.
Aftab calls her music “neo-Sufi,” carrying forward a long line of music and art that springs from Sufism, the strain of mystical practices in Islam starting in the 13th century. The most prominent Sufi voice in American popular culture is the poet Rumi who – through translations – started achieving a certain ubiquity in the ‘90s.
Standout Vulture Prince track “Last Night” sets a Rumi poem – in a new English translation by Aftab, “Last night, my beloved was like the moon. So beautiful,” and the original Urdu - with a beguiling multi-tracked vocal floating around and weaving through a subtle rocksteady rhythm anchored by Mario Carrillo’s thick bass line, Jorn Bielfeldt’s crunching drums, and Brighu Sahni’s echoing guitar slashes. “Grace far beyond my grasp. Oh, the rest is silence,” is a moment that still makes me stop whatever I’m doing and just listen, even after months of playing this record.
Aftab’s blending of genre and style never feels gimmicky or forced. She makes full use of her Berklee degree in Jazz Performance and Music Production and the wide-ranging Brooklyn community she’s part of. In an excellent interview with Brandon Stousy for The Creative Independent, she says, “All of [the musicians] really get it because this type of music is not really set in stone. It’s not super written. There’s a lot of visual cues that need to happen to go from one space to another. You really have to be that kind of performer to be able to do that, not overplay...I love everyone I collaborate with.”
She continued, “It starts off with me having a melody and lyrics that are extremely fixed. The harmonic structure is then dictated by the melody. I have a sense of what it sounds like in my mind. I sometimes have a demo of it and bring it to whoever I’m collaborating with on the song.”
“Mohabbat” - loosely translated as love or romance – intertwines Maeve Gilchrist’s harp (from the Scottish tradition, known for her work with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble) and Gyan Ryley’s (son of the minimalist composer Terry Riley and go-to collaborator for composers like John Zorn) guitar over a deep synth drone from Shazad Ismaily (Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, also working with Aftab in a new trio with frequent Wexner visitor Vijay Iyer), Cleveland native Jamey Haddad’s (Paul Simon, Osvaldo Golijov, Joanne Brackeen) subtle percussion, and a heart-stopping flugelhorn part from one of my favorite brass players, Nadje Noordhuis.
Beyond my gushing, it’s stacking up deserved praise from many corners. In Pitchfork, Bhanuj Kappal calls it “[A] lament for people she has loved and lost, but also for an imagined future where love—for the self, for the divine, for all of humanity—wins out over the politics of difference and resentment that are tearing apart both her native and adopted homelands. Cloaked in the gloom of dusk, it is an incandescent love letter to the light.” In Bandcamp Daily, one of my music writing heroes Peter Margasak, called it “Stunning” and “her most cogent, clear-eyed statement yet.”
I know this is a little off the beaten path of the music Pencilstorm is known for , but I think this is a show that will win over anyone interested in beautiful songs, anyone who’s ever enjoyed any of the musicians I named these collaborators as working with. This is a chance to see something new in an early US tour before she breaks wide open.
Arooj Aftab plays Mershon Auditorium on October 16 at 8:00 pm. At the request of the artist, all audience members must provide proof of vaccination upon entry, either in the form of a vaccination card or image of card, along with valid state-issued or university ID. For tickets and more information, visit https://wexarts.org/performing-arts/arooj-aftab