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| Fall on Mittenwalderstrasse, Berlin |
| Dear friends, I saw an interview last week, where during a drug trip, Liam Gallagher said he met John Lennon on the cosmic plane. And in this incredible moment of enlightenment and astral serendipity, the only thing John said to Liam was, “Don’t go to Australia. It rains the whole fucking time there”. Last week I didn’t meet John Lennon, or Liam for that matter, but while dreaming sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, I was visited by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Maybe some of you have heard of him through Jeff Buckley’s cover of one of his songs from the Live at Sin-é recordings. You can listen to it here. (Live at Sin-é in New York) |
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So somehow Nusrat showed up in my apartment and he was sitting on my couch, with a big smile, but he didn’t say anything. Just sat there in the corner by the window and smiled calmly, as if an impromptu visit to Kreuzberg from Pakistani is just how things roll. His corpulent and stately self molded nicely into the couch, his long flowing Kameez attire hung loosely down the sides of his legs, and his left arm was stretched out along the top of the sofa. He just beamed with his high forehead and open face and gestured for me to come sit on the couch with him. So I sat down with him, and we both looked off at the bare wall opposite, smiling. I was shocked that he was in my apartment, mainly because he passed away in 1997. But he looked good. He seemed jovial, vibrant, and content to be here on some random October night in Berlin. I think this random visit to my Mittenwalderstrasse apartment here in Berlin from a singer who was hailed as the” Voice of Pakistan”, and even entered Rolling Stones’ list of greatest singers of all time, only lasted a matter of seconds. Then I woke up, bewildered. I hadn’t listened to his music for years. |
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| I tried to be a music journalist in my university days, mainly because I liked using adjectives and wanted to get free tickets for concerts. After discovering Nusrat through Peter Gabriel’s string of World Music releases in the 1990s, I went to Nusrat’s (feels strange using his first name here, but he did visit me) concert at the Orpheum in Vancouver in 1996. His voice was simply awe-inspiring. I was one of a handfull of non-Pakistani spectators. Men of all ages kept getting up and dancing down the aisles to throw money on the stage during the whole concert. Nusrat sang on for almost two hours, seemingly in a trance and oblivious to the adoration hailing down from the sold-out crowd of 2500 people. I was stunned by how he was able to mix such emotional intensity with such technical mastery. I couldn’t comprehend how he did it, and still don’t. He simply blew my mind. And last week in the middle of the night he was sitting in my living room. Just chilling there. No comments about Australia. So that’s a little update about me, but more importantly I have some shows coming up in November and December. Only two of them will be with Kristina as KLIFFS, and the rest of them will be solo. Kristina is very busy these days with many theatre contracts. Her skills, personality, and pure talent are in high demand these days, and rightly so! Here are the details: 20.11. – Oldenburg, DE – Limonadenfabrik – Theater Laboratorium 21.11 – Bad Essen, DE(KLIFFS) – Schafstall 22.11 – Kraichgau (Karlsruhe), DE – house concert 23.11 – Neuchätel, CH – house concert 24.11 – St Gallen, CH – Bahnhof Bruggen 25.11 – Augsburg, DE – Metzgerei 27.11. – Dillenburg, DE – Die Erbse 28.11 – Grevenbroich, DE – Café Kultus 29.11 – Köln, DE – Wohngemeinschaft 30.11 – Lochwitz (Halle), DE – Weidengrund 6.12 – Berlin, DE – Silent Jazz Bar – TICKETS HERE 14.12 – Berlin, DE (KLIFFS) – Donau115 So the two shows with Kristina will be in Bad Essen (21.11.) and in Berlin (14.12.). The rest will be solo. I/We would love to see you if you share the geography. If you’re interested about the house concerts, please just write me for details at info@kliffs.ca. And my latest musical discovery has been this 18-year old British rapper (of Zimbabwean heritage). Syllables like a jazz drummer. His artist name is DC3. You can check a tune of his called “Beg” out here. Thanks for taking the time to read this and some of my other favourites:) Live at Sin-é – Jeff Buckley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan I sincerely hope this finds you all healthy and well, Mark |
