Sachal Jazz

This CD has been featured all over the place – CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera – and has already been at the top of the iTunes jazz chart. There have been predictable Buena Vista comparisons, as it features numerous retired and broke musicians from the decimated film studios of Lahore, where it was recorded, as well as at Abbey Road in London. Unlike the Cubans, however, this comes over more as an old-fashioned novelty record, with jazz and bossa nova classics and some evergreen standards performed in a subcontinental style, such as Bacharach & David's ‘This Guy's in Love With You’ and Errol Garner's ‘Misty’. All of them are over 30 years old, and all of them have been played to death in a thousand hotels and cabaret bars. The one that works best is Dave Brubeck's ‘Take Five, which manages to be charming and surprising, with Nafees Khan's sitar and Tanvir Hussain's guitar sinuously improvising around Paul Desmond's classic sax solo tune, driven by rhythmic strings and tabla. A version of Dave Grusin's ‘Mountain Dance’ is a showcase for some virtuoso sitar playing. What is beyond them, though, is the knack of emulating the lightness and grace of the original bossa nova tracks, like ‘Garota de Ipanema’ (what else?) with some clunky bhangra rhythms, flute and sarangi taking on some of the melodies.

You'd have to be slightly po-faced not to enjoy listening to it at least once, and the reason the media picked up on it is probably due to having an amusing and positive story coming out of Pakistan. Producer Izzat Majeed says he is proud that this record has put Pakistan on the musical map, but it is a country with immense musical riches. Apart from some qawwali, we hardly hear about its folk music or terrific artists, such as Zarsanga. Pakistan has one of the greatest singers of the world in Abida Parveen – let's have some inspiring new stuff from her, rather than rehashed lift music to represent one of the great musical countries of the world.