Rez Abbasi: Gandhi, Guitar Gods and the Greatest

When he was four years old, jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi's family moved from Karachi, Pakistan to Los Angeles. In L.A. he discovered his love for jazz guitar, leading to a remarkable career and life in New York. He's now the toast of fellow jazz musicians and publications such as The New York Times, yet he's still down-to-earth. Jazz legend Pat Metheny hailed him as "an amazing guitarist. ... unique and beautiful music—and best of all—very original."

Here's ABCDlady's recent conversation with Abbasi:

Are you from a musical family?
Yes and no, because many of the people in the family were hobbyists. They didn’t take it to the extreme that I have, but it helped to have them around the house singing and playing little flutes. I’m talking about relatives, and also my father is a hobbyist vocalist.

Rez Abbasi

What did they think of you becoming a professional musician?
My direct family, specifically my father, was okay with it because [they] saw the dedication that I had to practicing. Relatives thought, “Wow, this is very strange.” In fact, the uncle who started me playing guitar when I was 11 years old, when he found out that I was actually going to pursue this and go to college [for music], he became very nervous and embarrassed—almost apologetic…. We have a laugh out of it now. I think he’s accepted it because he sees records coming out and great reviews. It’s the same story with most families, but the Pakistani culture per se doesn’t always look up to the arts, let’s just put it that way.

Jazz usually isn’t something that you come to until you get a little older. As a kid growing up in the 1970s, what was the first music that you loved?
Basically whatever my older brother had around the house, which was bands like Led Zeppelin and the whole rock era of the ’70s. I just bought a whole set of ’70s music on DVD. I’m still so into that. It’s so engrained in me…. I slowly got into bands like Van Halen and these harder rock groups that most 15-year-olds get into. And then from there it was jazz…. I was listening to [Van Halen’s] “Eruption” and bands like Rush. When, I was 16, my friend said, “Hey, I’m starting to play jazz, why don’t you come to this concert with me.” And so he took me to an Ella Fitzgerald concert. It was interesting. I don’t know how much I appreciated it at that time, but it was definitely an eye-opener and ear-opener. I mean she’s the pinnacle of jazz singing. The guitar player with her was a gentleman named Joe Pass. He was a sort of an older, somewhat balding gentleman, playing this guitar and basically playing circles around all the rock guys. I saw this guy and said, “Oh, wow, this is really something! This guy plays incredibly. What is that? What is he playing on the guitar?” If it wasn’t for the guitar itself, I very well might not have been intrigued to jump into jazz so quickly. But the physicality of the guitar and to see someone get around it even more so than Van Halen or Alex Lifeson from Rush was very intriguing. From there on, I said, "Okay, I have to make a little turn here because I’m missing out on learning more.” By that time, I had the rock-and-roll language under my skin, I was playing with bands and the next step was “Where do I go to college?”

So you were playing rock at the time?
We were playing parties and somewhat serious about trying to compose original rock material and become rock stars. We wanted that lifestyle and everybody in the group was devoted to that. This was up to about 16, and I had to make a choice the following year. When high school ends, that’s a huge choice in a kid’s life. I ended up going to a program at the University of Southern California. They had a really great jazz guitar program. You couldn’t get more direct: guitar program, okay, sounds like me. Basically overnight, I started practicing six hours a day and stayed home and didn’t go out to parties. I quit my rock band. My mother was amazed—she still is today. That was the quickest event in my life; I just turned it around. I realized that a practice here or there is not good enough. If I was going to take it seriously, there’s a lot more to music than becoming a rock star.

Tell me about moving to New York.
I left USC in the middle of the term. I came to New York. I went to the Manhattan School of Music and finished up my degree there. I needed to get that rawness and that energy and that experience that you only get when you're in an environment that encapsulates that.

You made a pilgrimage to India to study under the late master percussionist Ustad Alla Rakha. What was that like and how did it affect you and your music?
I was there to take in the whole cultural element as well as to meet with Ustad Alla Rakha. I would sit in on a number of his classes. The teaching method is very different from the West; it’s not so ... written out. You go there and you act as a sponge, soaking it in. That was one element of the trip and the other was to discover the whole roots of my culture. I’d been to Pakistan a couple of times before that, but that was with relatives and sort of sheltered. In India, I was basically alone there for two months. It was a stunning eye-opener in every way. It still stays with me. It’s still within my system.

ABCDlady has also interviewed your wife and musical collaborator, singer Kiran Ahluwalia. How did you meet?
She was looking for a South Asian artist to work with and she got a hold of me. Strangely, enough I was looking for an Indian female vocalist for my record.

So it started out professionally and then you became a couple.
Well, we became a couple pretty quickly. I was also looking for a girlfriend.

You multitasked.
That's a good way to put it.

From left, Kiran Ahluwalia and Rez Abbasi after playing a duo in Holland

How does being married to a musician inspire you?
Living together is very conducive to making music on a spontaneous level. When I hear her practice, sometimes my ears burn up, just like when she hears me practice.

On your MySpace page you describe your music as genre bending. You list jazz musicians such as John Coltane and Thelonious Monk, legendary South Asian artists such as Pandit Ravi Shanker and Ustad Alla Rakha, and rock acts like U2 and classical musicans. But you also list Muhammad Ali and Gandhi. As a musician, how do those two influence your playing or artistic choices?
I'm always moved by people who are motivated by selfless acts, and there's no better an icon for that than Mahatma Gandhi. He took it to an extreme and made a huge dent in history. With jazz music, when a group of musicians are at their peak, it's usually due to the collectivity of the group, and not the individual. As for Muhammad Ali, he’s the definition of an entire sport. He not only used his boxing skills but more so his mind in a sport that's known mostly for its brutality. Again with jazz and improvising music, I find the most rewarding results come from a balance of skills with a mindful conception.

Really, even though it’s difficult to speak about Gandhi and Ali in the same paragraph—one going beyond the call of duty and changing the paradigm of how people view or deal with politics and unrest, while the other addressing the sweet science of a violent sport. I resonate with the "outside of the box" kind of thinking that helped them reach their potential.

There’s also a lot of inspiration that comes from film. At one point in my life, I was very inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. He’s just a very deep thinker in the way he rolls out the form of his films. I like the way he delays and develops his thematic material. He is a master of tension and release and can really capture it on the set. When I apply that kind of thinking to my own composition, it comes in the form of melodic and form development. I like to retain the character of a melody and work it through different sections of the piece. Sometimes I like to take the listener on a path through newer material that may create mystery or tension. Even in Hitchcock's films, he uses the orchestra to great effect. You can see the tension and release on screen but also hear it and taste it. It’s a visceral experience he captured many times, and if my music captures some of that, I’ve succeeded.

For more on Rez Abbasi, visit his Web site at: http://www.reztone.com.

Elaine G. Flores is a New York-based writer and editor, who specializes in covering beauty, style and entertainment.