User:Celt islam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Celt Islam.

CELT ISLAM. By Jamal Jimenez.

Many Muslim musicians are at the forefront of a growing movement within contemporary music. One that blends traditional musical forms and ideas, uniting these traditions with cutting edge contemporary music technology, an ancient to future music whose definitions are constantly in flux, redefined and reconstructed in ever new and interesting kaleidoscopic fusions. Muslim musicians involvement in contemporary Western music is not new and for instance there is a strong tradition in Jazz music of Muslim artists and a general respect of Islam and spiritual aesthetics.

One such example is Pharoah Sanders the Afro-American saxophonist, who grew out of the free jazz movement in the late 60’s and early 70’s and played with jazz legend John Coltrane, has composed such songs as Hum Allah and Tauhid and has played with musicians of the Gnawa spiritual tradition in Morocco. In fact the experimentalist Jazz liberators who developed out of the growing black self-determination movements in the US between the late 50s and early 70s were the forerunner of the exploratory passions of contemporary musicians. They abolished the artificial structures within Jazz and incorporated all manner of influences including African and Middle Eastern music and these visionaries are undoubtedly one of the major inspirations of what we today call world music.

The diversity and scope of Muslim musicians in the modern global music scene is impressive and wide reaching and there are many notables such as Mercan Dede, an Instanbul born Ney player and Trance DJ who unites traditional Turkish Modal and Sufi themes with Western electronic ambiance and beat science. In a similar vein there is the Iranian born US resident Susanna Deyhim who interprets traditional Sufi poetry such as that of Rumi and Hafez in a modern sonic art flavour. There is also Youssou Ndour the Sengalese vocalists and Muslim in the vein of the Sengalese Sufi orders and whose voice has been compared in its greatness to soul legends Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding.

So far the artists I’ve mentioned have their roots in Muslim lands yet there is an equally interesting situation happening amongst Muslim musicians raised in the US, UK and Europe.

There seems to be hundreds of Muslim rappers and Hip Hop artists and there are at least two US based web sites dedicated to Muslim Hip hop.

Two of the most interesting are former Tribe Called Quester Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Muslim Latino rappers Mujahideen Team who are part of the Remarkable Label crew who as a whole present themselves as the standard in contemporary Muslim music.

Closer to home mention must be made of Ali Nuwaz the owner of Nation Records and member of Fundamental, who are part of the extensive Urban Indian music scene.

Before I introduce an artist I feel is truly emblematic of the growing sense of an Islamic aesthetic within contemporary music, I’d like to refer to an obscure Record by Flamenco artist Curro Piñana who recorded a Flamenco record in the 70’s that interpreted the poems of the legendary Andalusian visionary Islamic mystic Ibn Arabi into Spanish and set them to standard Flamenco forms such as the Soleas.

The reason I make reference of this record is that it shows the wonderful possibilities that present themselves musically to express and make aware Islamic sensibilities and equally shows the truly cross cultural human unity that exists within Islam.

Celt Islam is an outfit that is reflective of this Islamic aesthetic touching the outer frontiers of contemporary music and is the front piece for the ideas and music of Abdullah Hamzah who is producer, keyboardist and percussionist for Celt Islam Sound System and The Nine Invisibles, two intertwined outfits based in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

As the name implies Celt Islam is a pseudonym representing Abdullah’s origin and faith.

He is British of Irish and Scottish descent and a practising Muslim who reverted to Islam in 1989.

Abdullah formed Celt Islam Sound System in 2001 and describes their sound as a fusion of dub-jungle and alternative electronica with an Islamic punk attitude, the sound of a modern Sufi Western Muslim! He is also part of the Nine Invisibles formed by Kava Kava drummer Mick Reed, a group Abdullah describes as alternative psychedelic dub breaks and who are just about to drop their third album, ‘By Any Means Necessary.’

Describing his initiation into music, Abdullah reflects, “Ever since I have been a kid, really all I have wanted is to create sounds and get into that field, to get on stage and entertain people. It sounds bizarre but that has always been inside me and even when I was a kid I used to draw pictures of bands and stuff. I was inspired by the Beatles and the first records I were given when I was a kid were "She Loves You" and "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino.’

He continues, ‘I had this little mono record player and I used to stick my ear next to it to try and get inside the sound. And even throughout the seventies my father bought me a stereo and he got me into music and it kind of escalated from there. It wasn't until the eighties that, in my teens, I discovered reggae through listening to Bob Marley. I wanted to get into that field as I thought yeah, that was for me and what it was about - its politics, its spirituality.”

Islamic Spiritual influences are noticeable and influential within the music Abdullah composes. ‘All the music I write’, he reflects, ‘is based on some kind of theme from political to spiritual subjects that I have witnessed or experienced and subjects that fascinate me’.

For instance one of the song titles is “Al Khider [the green man).” Al Khider is the name given in Islamic traditions and in particular Sufism and the nave given to the one mentioned as “the servant” in Surah Al Kahf(18): 60-82 of the Qur'an and is equated with the Green man of European traditions. Other compositions attempt to express sonically subjects such as the ‘Subatomic World in the Qur'an’ written by Aisha Brewley, a book Abdullah refers to as a great source of inspiration, ‘explaining the many mysteries of the subatomic realm from the holy’ and ‘a delight for people who know a little about atoms and the making of the universe.’

Abdullah is also directly influenced by the music of the Muslim world and includes the music of ancient Andalusia and the Mevlevi dervishes from Turkey as some of his favourite Islamic musical Styles. Abdullah became a musician after embracing Islam and he states music has always been a main source of inspiration. ‘Since I was a child,’ he says, ‘I have been into music and always dreamt of making music for people like myself who don’t like industry standard capitalist, brain-dead garbage music that’s just about making money? ISLAM is and always will be a main influence to me, the history of music has Islam all over it from blues to classical contemporary music.’

Islamic Andalusia is an important inspiration on both Abdullah himself and his music he creates and he has spent some time living in Granada, Andalusia. He lived close to the Mirador Alhambra in Albaycin with all its old Arabic architecture and studied with the Sufi teacher Shayk Abdul Qadir as Sufi. Abdullah explains, ‘there Muslim Community there is amazing Mashallah, they all meet for nights of dhikr and there Eid is just the best’ and commenting on the Alhambra he comments,’ its artwork inside there is a complete fusion of culture.’

For Abdullah Islamic Spain also touches the reality of what if means to be a Celtic Muslim. He explains, ‘What I'm trying to say to people is that you can be European and you can be Muslim,’ he uses as example the indigenous inhabitants of Al-Andalus who Abdullah explains were the original Celt Islam. ‘In the middle ages Granada was in particular a multi cultural city all over the world people living in harmony and they fused each others cultures art and music and religion and you can see that reflected very much in it's architecture where you will see the Celtic Knot work and the Arabic inscriptions and the Persian Floral work and the Iraqi stalactite carvings of the domes, the Chinese porcelain and tile work and stuff. These people bought in people from all over the world and they tried to reflect that as mankind is one we can celebrate all our differences and we can fuse it in a nice way as well and I think that there is a lot of lessons to be learned from that.’

Abdullah continues to explain that Al Andalus society existed in perfect harmony and was destroyed by greedy people jealous of its beauty who ended up looting the place and destroying some of the buildings. Fortune prevails however as Abdullah explains, ‘some of the Moorish buildings have remained in good condition because they felt so inferior of the art and architecture that they built over it and covered it for hundreds of years so that nobody could actually see it. It wasn't it until they pulled the walls down that it was discovered. That was a big influence for me, as well as listening to all the music in Spain –The Flamenco and the Moroccan Andalusia orchestras coming into Spain and collaborating. I can say that Spain has been a big influence on my music and on the name "Celt Islam" because they were Celts and there is a myth about Spanish Muslims which is oh they are Moors or they try and portray them as this alien Invasion from another country or the different coloured skin all the racist rhetoric that they come out with its absolute nonsense. Yes there were African Kings in Spain but that is because it was multi- cultural. Everybody had their own rights and was judged according to their laws and because of the borders you had Africans coming in’.

Abdullah explains that the leadership was not based in terms of hereditary successions but rather whether a person was noble or honest and it was not uncommon to have emirs of different origins whether European, African or Arab. ‘They intermarried with each other and everybody respected each other.’

Yet Abdullah musical influences are not just from the Muslim world and his tastes include all manner of styles including punk and progressive rock. He explains, ‘as a modern western Muslim, I have been influenced by many musical and political forms, be it skinhead, punk, b.boy and breakdance . Punk has been a great influence and I admire people like Jello Biafra and John Lydon who are to me real punk and fully comprehend what punk stands for, as we see today punk has become a mainstream fashion and to be frank bands like Greenday and Busted are the epitome of a capitalist fashion based fake punk that says nothing of the real issues that face us as human beings.’

Abdullah is not alone in being a Muslim interested in the reactionary outlook of Punk. There are a number of bands and artists in the States such as Sean Muttaqi the owner of Uprising Records in Los Angeles who are coming out of the Punk movement and embracing Islam. There is even a highly controversial author and writer Michael Muhammed Knight who has written a much-criticised novel about Muslim Punks called Taqwacore. Abdullah explains he has been asked by Knight to be involved in a Muslim Punk compilation he is putting together later in the year. Commenting on Knight Abdullah comments, ‘his articles are good although I do find him a bit of a lose cannon and he tends to offend people with his views which I must confess that I do not like people insulting Sufi saints and I try to keep away from all kinds of slander against great people of the Islamic world.’

However he continues in a diplomatic approach, ‘Although I disagree with some of what Mr Knight says I do respect his opinions and I support his right to view his opinions.’

Though it is really the energy of punk that is represented in Abdullah’s music and not necessarily guitar based rock. He comments, ‘Punk is dead and will never comeback in its original form but the punk attitude still lives on, punk was a phenomenon that happened in the 70s as a reaction to the appalling state of the western civilisation as it stood back then. There are many interpretations of punk according to where one comes from! As I now live in Huddersfield which was the Mecca of punk from the 70s right through to the late 90s, but what I have seen over the years living here is that the old school punks are fed up with guitar based bands and are loving the new generation of punks like myself who are producing alternative music with a punk based energy.’

Discussing the relations between punk and Islam Abdullah explains, ‘There are many figures in Islamic history that could in one sense be deemed to have almost a punk attitude to society! Punk, like is said was a reactionary movement to the norm of capitalism, which bares many similarity to the early Muslim community and many Muslim saints like Mansur Al Hallaj [ ra]’

However what of the views and the criticism some Muslims have towards music and musicians. Abdullah is unperturbed, ‘I have had attacks from Muslims for my music but that doesn’t bother me at all as they are lost in a world which lies in the middle ages and has no place in the modern world.’

For Abdullah there is no conflict between Islam and Music and states, ‘Islam teaches us is that our intentions are what our music is judged by. When people tell me music is haraam, I instantly see that they are lost in a world of opinions and their arguments are dumb and have no real weight against what our dear beloved prophet Muhammad (SAWS) taught us.’ He sums up this subject by explaining that the arguments against music are based solely on opinions and are not taken from Qur'an and Hadith. Further that the word music is not even mentioned in the Qur'an and Hadith. ‘There are some very weak Hadith against music but there are many Hadith that prove music was a part of the Muslim Community even at the time of the Prophet (SAWS).’

What about the future, Abdullah plans, ‘I really want to fuse more styles. I want to travel and record musicians from all around the world and fuse it with modern sounds and technology. As the first person invented the guitar he would have created chaos as it was modern technology then and today people still have that stigma of its either digital modern and its not real music but people were saying that about the guitar or the piano... but no music is just audible sound and in fact I think that music can be completely invisible.

I hear music within myself that only I hear and that's the beauty of music in that it has more than one aspect.’

Celt-islam sound-system is a dub/jungle outfit from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Formed in 2001 by Abdullah Hamzah (celt-islam), a convert to Islam and a member of the northern alternative "dub/breaks" outfit "The Nine Invisibles".

The band features artists such as inder gold-finger [natacha atlas and ian brown] , d. Bo general , bongo chilli and dan-man, some of the uk's finest dancehall emcees.

As the name implies Celt Islam is a pseudonym representing Abdullah's origin and faith. He is british of irish and scottish descent and a practising muslim who reverted to islam in 1989.

Abdullah describes their sound as a fusion of dub-jungle and alternative electronica with an islamic punk attitude, the sound of a modern sufi western muslim!

CELT-ISLAM-SOUND-SYSTEM: LIVE OUTFIT

ABDULLAH HAMZAH (Celt Islam): percussions, keyboards PAUL BIRD (Rammy): guitars DAVID VAUSE (Purple Dave): keyboards

MICK REED: drums INDERGOLD FINGER: percussions, tabla DR.WEEVIL: turntables, violin

D.J. OBEAH: turntables, samples M.C. LALAMAN

Plus: BONGO-CHILLI, DANMAN, TAHIR RASHID, D.BO GENERAL: vocals DR. BRUCE " THE OCCILATOR" BAKER: analogue keyboards

www.myspace.com/celtislamsoundsystem

www.celtislam.com