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Coi Umeed

from Neel Murgai Ensemble by Neel Murgai

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about

The melody in this song is of Eastern European gypsy origin. I had heard it in the epic gypsy film “Latcho Drom”. Years ago I set this melody to Urdu lyrics from Ghalib, a 19th century writer of a poetic form called Ghazal. Somehow the melody and lyrics just seemed to fit in a natural way. The translation comes from K. C. Kanda’s “Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal”.

lyrics

Coi umeed bar nahin aati,
All my hopes stand belied,

Coi surat nazr nahin aati.
No prospect is in sight!

Maut ka ek din maayen hai,
Death will come when it will come,

Neend kyon raat bhar nahin aati?
Why comes not sleep at night?


Aage aati thi haal-e-dil pe hansi,
I once could laugh at the state of my heart,

Ab kisi baat par nahin aati.
But nothing can make me laugh today.

Ham wahaan hain jahaan se ham ko bhi,
I am in that oblivious state,

Kuch hamaari khabar nahin aati.
A stranger to myself where I am.

credits

from Neel Murgai Ensemble, released May 23, 2017
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Sam Crawford
Additional engineering by Michael Gittleman

Tracks 2,4,5 composed by Neel Murgai
1,3,6 are Murgai’s treatments of traditional material.
Lyrics in 6 by Ghalib
8 by Murgai, Maneri, Gupta, Heffernan

Cover design by Indra Gill
Cover illustration by Matthew Lillis

Special thanks to many people, without whom this music would not be possible:

My teachers: Krishna Bhatt, Edgar Grana, Ravindra Goswami, William Sweeney…
My Family: Jessica Plotnick, Indra Gill, Leith Murgai…
And the many other musicians, teachers, friends and family members who havesupported and inspired me along the way.
neelmurgai@earthlink.net

www.neelmurgai.com

Innova Director: Philip Blackburn
Operations Manager: Chris Campbell
Innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.

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Neel Murgai New York

Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. He is a Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn Raga Massive, a nonprofit musicians collective. Neel has studied sitar for over 20 years with Pundit Krishna Bhatt. He is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. Neel has also studied overtone singing with Timothy Hill. ... more

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