Music is a world in itself, with a language we all understand, with an equal opportunity, for all to sing, dance and clap their hands – Stevie Wonder
Sci-fi fans will remember how humans and aliens communicated with one another using a 5-tone musical motif in the movie ‘Close Encounters of The Third Kind.’ The movie was also one of the first to portray space aliens as friendly neighbors – albeit, a bit different – and not as enemy invaders. As the concept of a so-called ‘clash of civilizations gains currency and defame simultaneously, it is perhaps time to reconsider how we build relationships between peoples and cultures, beyond traditional diplomacy.
Over the last year in Pakistan, I have come across a variety of musicians and artists from the United States on state sponsored or charity driven missions to collaborate with and educate local musicians and artists – including jazz quartets, film-makers, choreographers, painters and even a classical sitar player. The efforts of these artistes first spiked my interest in cultural diplomacy – the exchange of cultural representatives as a means of improving relationships and understanding between nations. And when Bill Schaefer, a US journalist, Chiranjibi Paudyal, UK based journalist of Nepali origin and I teamed up on a cross-cultural reporting project – I knew I had one thing in common with them; an appreciation for each other’s diverse culture and the arts. At a time when most Pakistanis and Americans hold a plethora of stereotypes about each other – cultural exchanges of the simplest kind will go the furthest.
Last year I had the privilege of experiencing intimate performances by two jazz quartets from the US – The Ari Roland Quartet and Cultures in Harmony – each one in time for the American and Pakistani independence day celebrations respectively. Both groups performed at several venues, jammed and trained with local musicians, and put a jazz spin on popular Pakistani classics. The difference between the two groups was their reach among the Pakistani audience.
The Ari Roland Quartet went on tour for the US State Department in mid 2009 as part of their ongoing "Bi-Communal Jazz Futures" program, sponsored by the US Embassy in Cyprus and Islamabad. Besides performing American jazz music for a variety of Pakistani audience, the Quartet held classes and workshops for Pakistani youth and music enthusiast and held discourse about the similarities between jazz and South Asian music. A commendable effort on part of the US State Department and the Quartet on all counts – except that the reach of the program was severely restricted due to security concerns. The quartet performed at the 4th of July celebration in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for the crème-de-la-crème of the city’s elite – a social class only too familiar with the ‘real’ America – many of them having spent their definitive years in the US as students. The magic of the Ari Roland Quartet really came alive in the CityFM89 radio station studios as they broke it down for a live jazz performance for the station’s jazz show – Take 5 with Zahir. They took a Pakistani pop classic called ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ and made it their own with cellos and saxophones. Their version of the classic gained a fair amount of airplay on CityFM89. A Facebook video of their performance during the show garnered a great response from an audience much younger than the listener ship of the same show. The quartet brought a typical American art form to Pakistan and let us make it our own. In Ari’s own words ‘The history of jazz has to do with taking songs that everyone knows and making jazz performances of them.’ The same melodies, different instruments. The same thoughts, a different language. Translated.
A few months on, just in time for the Pakistan’s Independence Day – 14th August – a local charity focusing on education called The Citizen’s Foundation brought to Pakistan a jazz quartet from the NGO Cultures in Harmony. Cultures in Harmony is a US-based NGO led by Julliard graduate. Accompanying Harvey were Ethan Philbrick, Chris Jenkins and Emily Holden. The quartet performed at schools run by The Citizen’s Foundation in some of the country’s poorest areas and collaborated with some of the most acclaimed and popular musicians of the country. The quartet traveled extensively in Pakistan and gained much media coverage and a great response to their music. In fact, their string quartet version of the Pakistani national anthem is now available as a cell phone ring tone in Pakistan. And when they performed the national anthem for radio – I felt my eyes tearing up. What resounded in my ears was a passion for my nation that was shared by four Americans.
The coming together of cultures does not mean that one be overpowered by the other. The exercise of American musicians performing along side Pakistani musicians creates both the perception and reality of Americans wanting to learn from Pakistanis and their culture. In recent times, Americans have traveled abroad only to tell people what to do. Cultural exchanges help foster the notion that Americans are respectful and willing to learn from their Pakistani counterparts.
I make no tall claims in favor of cultural diplomacy – music will not stop a war. But there is hope that when Pakistani school children think of America, they will remember William Harvey and friends who played Pakistani music for them – at the same time that they of drones and the CIA, and their view of the US will be complex enough to keep out the emotion of hate. At the same time when Americans hear of Pakistan in the news, they will remember Roland and Harvey’s stories of an intelligent, hospitable people of a beautiful country, not terrorism.
At the core of our existence, Pakistanis and Americans share a common bond. We live in countries we chose to make our homes. Every Pakistani and every American has an ancestor who chose to take on the identity. In the same way that we chose our past, we can choose our future. We can allow it to be overshadowed by mistakes or come together as citizens of the human race and chart a new way forward.
