Mekaal Hasan

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Mekaal Hasan is a musician from Pakistan. He has worked with many Pakistani bands and solo artists in the industry. He has been educated in Pakistan as well as abroad that has allowed him to experiment with a wide variety of music genre.

1 Life & Career
2 Band Members
3 Discography
- 3.1 Albums
- 3.2 Singles
4 External links

[edit] Life & Career

Hasan was surrounded by music from childhood. His father's passion for jazz influenced him throughout his early years. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, Mekaal studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston. His stay exposed him to a wide variety of music and musicians, many of whom are influences to this day.

Returning to Pakistan in 1995, Mekaal set up a state of the art recording facility, Digital Fidelity Studios where many of the top artists of Pakistan record. Mekaal formed The Mekaal Hasan Band towards the end of 2000 and the Sampooran record features his long standing writing partnership with keyboardist Javed Akhtar. Apart from leading MHB, Mekaal also plays bass as a guest artist for one of South Asia's leading rock bands Junoon.

The year 2004 saw 2 bands, Noori and Entity paradigm (eP), which were produced and engineered for by Mekaal win the best song award and best alternative song award, respectively, at the first ever music awards in Pakistan.

The band has toured extensively since the launch of their album "Sampooran" including an extremely well-received tour of India. Mekaal Hasan's composition and feel for the guitar has constantly earned critical praise and recognition, although the public's response has been underwhelming. In a fledgling music scene such as Pakistan's, the public has found it hard to understand the artistry of a Jazz-Fusion (although Mekaal Hasan refers to it as "world music") album such as Sampooran. The songs themselves are classic poetry pieces set to Mekaal's compositions, and as such are lacking the catchy beats and simple lyrics that are the hallmark of Pakistani-pop. However, the songs have a haunting beauty, immaculate composition and structure, and address topics that are both diverse and thought-provoking. The Video for "Rabba" was a social commentary on a scale rarely found in Pakistani videos. Having garnered a cult following, the band finds itself overshadowed in terms of sales by more commercial acts.

The current lineup of the band debuted in Karachi at a charity event on the 11th of March 2006, with the replacement of Nabeel Qizilbash by Adnan Sarwar, a doctor by profession, at the Everlasting Spirit Concert in aid of earthquake victims. The rest of the band has been around since the album "Sampooran". All the musicians on the Mekaal Hasan Band are accomplished musicians in their own right, having played for various artists over the years, honing their craft. Artists such as Gumby are often found jamming with Mekaal Hasan, and he has performed with Coco Lee and other acclaimed artists as a jazz guitarist.

The band is working in the studio on their next album, due for release in late 2006, supposedly titled "Andholan". The tracks "Jhok Ranjhan" and "Kirvani" are from the pending album, and indicate that Mekaal has only grown as an artist. Judging by these, The Mekaal Hasan Band might just be on the verge of exploding into the mainstream. The song Jhok Ranjhan spent 4 weeks at number one on the charts.

Mekaal Hasan Band has released their second video of the song called "Andholan". The song Andholan is doing good on all major Pakistani music channels.