FAREED HAQUE and the FLAT EARTH ENSEMBLE
“Flat Planet”
Owl Studios
Jazz may be America’s art form, but these days the music’s most promising growth is being inspired by other musicians with other mindsets. Fareed Haque is a multi-culti guitarist who grew up in Chicago and studied classical music at Northwestern University. He also studied jazz at the fabled North Texas State University. His discography includes working with solo artists as diverse as Paquito D’Rivera, Tito Puente and Toots Thielemans.
Haque’s father is from Pakistan, his mother from Chile. His music is eclectic to the max. The hints of Bollywood pair with East Indian guitar licks reminiscent of George Harrison’s Ravi Shankar period in the 1960s.
Bubbling underneath this mind-stretching tapestry of many colors are complex layers of Asian folk rhythms balanced by the simpler and more muscular beats of good ol’ American hip-hop and funk.
Haque’s roots are in Chicago, after all. The ideas on his album transcend this blend of cultures to make a unique jazz statement full of suggestions more musicians could pick up like bread crumbs for nourishment while improvising their own trails through the dangerous forests of pop culture.
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