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”.
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.