Pakistani-American composer and drummer Qasim Ali Naqvi has his hands in a number of pies. He composes film scores, plays for experimental acoustic trio Dawn of Midi, and collaborates with other artists. All this, while still pursuing his own solo career. The prolific musician has announced the release date for his next album, Beta, on June 20, 2020.
Additionally, Naqvi announced that he will release the new record as a limited edition on clear vinyl. Beta acts as “a prequel to the story of” Navi’s 2019 release Teenages. The Guardian described the latter, an analog modular synth suite, as “a masterclass in the almost forgotten art of playing synthesizers for their own sake.”
With Beta, fans and audiences will get new material that complements Teenages. Naqvi teases that the new album adds “an interesting dimension to the entire Teenages arc.”
Jazz and Composition Influence Qasim Naqvi
Naqvi’s entry into the world of instruments and music came at age 12. At this time, he started discovering the drums. “At that age, it was hard to feel inspired by anything. So when I felt that connection with the drums, it was kind of a magical moment and I became obsessed,” Naqvi recalls.
His older brothers, amateur musicians themselves, turned his attention to jazz. Furthermore, they steered him towards the path of improvised music. “And I was on a steady diet of it; [Thelonious] Monk, Miles Davis, Andrew Hill, Keith Jarrett, the AACM and all sorts of creative experimental music that was being made in the 60’s by African American artists,” Naqvi says.
Naqvi cites the moment he met the avant-garde bassist Reggie Workman, known for his work with John Coltrane’s quartet and Art Blakey, as a critical step towards breaking free from emulation and developing his own sound.
He went on to earn a BFA in performance from Mannes / New School Jazz and Contemporary Music program in 1999. Then, he got more involved in film scoring. He received more and more requests to write for “small orchestra type settings.”
Finally, he earned an MFA in composition and performance from California Institute of the Arts. This got him “more thorough compositional training.”
Forming Dawn of Midi
At this time, Naqvi joined up with two of his friends, bassist Aakaash Israni from India and pianist Amino Belyamani from Morocco. The three founded the acoustic ensemble Dawn of Midi in Los Angeles. First formed in 2007, the ensemble has resided in Brooklyn since 2011. They have released three albums, First in 2010, Live the next year, and lastly, Dysnomia. This latest record weaves rhythmic structures from North and West African folk traditions together with different sounds.
Besides his work with Dawn of Midi, Naqvi also composes scores for documentaries and film. He started out composing for short movies such as A Drop of Life, Post Meridian, Sell It to the Hedge Funds. He also worked on documentaries like Beyond Borders: the Debate Over Human Migration and Inshallah, Footbal. Naqvi additionally composed for the TV series Futurestates in 2010.
Qasim Naqvi to Release Beta on June 20
Naqvi offers an introspective, thought-provoking perspective on his position as an artist:
“…as a Pakistani American, I’ve been asked quite often if my work addresses my culture, like if it speaks to the South Asian experience in some way. I feel like a lot of artists who are part of minority groups are often asked this question and expected in some ways, to wear their culture on their sleeve, as a way to gain validity from the larger art world.”
“I find this type of inquiry to be tokenistic,” says Naqvi. “If anything I’m trying to run away from myself when I make art. And my hope is to make art that allows people to run away from themselves, for a minute…”
Naqvi says that during the making of Beta, he “fed simple melodic ideas and rhythmic patterns” into a setup featuring a modular synthesizer and “observed the responses.”
Listen to the single “Matic” here.
