THE 21ST CENTURY’S MOST SIGNIFICANT MUSICAL MOMENT
Why Rohail Hyatt’s Coke Studio Pakistan should have such a pre-eminent place internationally
It is now well established that music around the world has been losing soul and becoming less memorable (and not just music either) for a while. A recent article presented the fact that 70% of the US music market is now represented by “old music” but typically copped-out while trying to identify the reason (probably to avoid the inevitable generational slur — which is commercially more prudent, of course).
A focus on commerciality and technological advancement causing lower attention spans and eventually a much lower “appetite for difficulty” (and now adding ideological outrage based on identity politics to this) has destroyed much of the advances the human spirit made in the last four decades of the previous century. It is the biggest story of our times that people are quite simply in denial of, a bigger story than even climate change or authoritarianism, identity politics or social media tribalism.
Right in the middle of when this dumbing down began in earnest (which would pick up serious pace from 2012, when smartphones came into being), a cultural revolution erupted in Pakistan from a highly unlikely space — sponsored as it was by an international soft drink monolith, the likes of whom do not look beyond commercial viability. It actually all began in Brazil, in 2007, as a one-off promotional project (called ‘Coca Cola Zero Studio’) that climaxed with the launch of a new music phone by Nokia. In 2008, an idea was floated by Coke in Pakistan to do a live music television reality show. Rohail Hyatt was the inspired pick as its producer. It might have had something to do with the release of the Pakistani film Khuda Kay Liye in 2007 for which he was the music director — a huge critical and commercial success indigenously and internationally. Right time, right place perhaps?
Hyatt had been a significant cultural figure for almost 20 years before this, first as a founder and keyboardist/composer of the pioneering pop band Vital Signs in 1987 (their song “Dil Dil Pakistan” has often been called Pakistan’s second national anthem; in 2003, the song came in third on BBC World Service’s online poll of the most popular songs in the world).
Later, as the founder of Pyramid Productions, a music company in Pakistan that played a role in shaping an already formidable pop/rock music scene in his country. Unlike India, where film music dominated with an inevitable accent on interpretive suitability, the visceral musical expression had always been far deeper in Pakistan (where that expression manifested in other places as well, like the rooted humanity in their TV dramas, or how they played sport at their best). Post-9/11, Hyatt had been going through a cultural awakening of his roots, which undoubtedly played a big role in what Coke Studio Pakistan would become. He was also in the process of exploring the A432 Hz tuning in his personal life — more on that below.
The (badly-lit) first year of the show was not pathbreaking - it was still finding its feet. Even though, taking off from the aesthetic of the work Hyatt had done in Khuda Kay Liye, it showcased the extremely high standard of Pakistani rock. There were mostly popular indigenous hits, redone in front of a studio audience, with even a Neil Diamond cover thrown in. This rousing pairing between Rahat Fateh Ali Khan & Ali Azmat was perhaps the highlight of the inaugural season.
But in 2009, Hyatt found his big idea — of merging his roots with what had been his passion for so many years. Not just allowing the intensity of Rock to meet up with the Folk and Semi-Classical traditions of Pakistan, not merely combining a contemporary artist with a rooted performer, but to allow for an embrace, more affectionate and inclusive of each other than anything that had come before. With thaharav (calm). And most importantly — in the spirit of seeking, not performing. The studio audience vanished and the accent on musicality and ideas took centerstage. The magic happened instantly (song 1 below).
Over the next five seasons (till 2013), Hyatt produced 107 songs for Coke Studio Pakistan, before he bowed out. At least a third of them are bonafide classics, and most of the remaining have aged well, many still notable for their freshness and unpredictability. Now, with the distance of a little time, it is clear that this output from this period will go down in history as one of the great collection of songs in all of music history, for their significance and influence. It’s not something that can be measured in just figures; in fact, subsequent seasons (helmed first by Strings then Ali Hamza of Noori and Zohaib Kazi, and now Xulfi, with multiple music directors) garnered far more eyeballs — no doubt benefitting enormously from the foundation Hyatt had laid, but also because they often swapped seeking for pleasing and experimentation for accessibility. Despite not having the searing centeredness that Rohail Hyatt’s presence imbued most of the songs in his period at the helm, despite a fair amount of middling mediocrity, quite a few of those tracks too found something special in their journeys through those Karachi walls.
It can be argued that in the world of popular music, Coke Studio Pakistan’s initial pioneering thrust belongs in the same league as Bob Dylan going electric, The Beatles releasing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Jimi Hendrix playing at Woodstock, Johnny Cash performing in prisons, Marvin Gaye making Motown politically urgent, Bob Marley & the Wailers establishing reggae, the launch of MTV, Michael Jackson introducing the moonwalk, Queen performing at Live Aid, The Smiths influencing British Rock for two generations, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan becoming a major progenitor of “World Music” and Nirvana performing on MTV Unplugged. With one significant difference — this time it happened in the East. The historic importance of this cannot be overstated.
Coke Studio Pakistan’s international influence can be seen in the volume of interactions that happen online, literally from all corners of the world, and the music that is being referenced gradually. Meanwhile, the sheer longevity of so many of those tracks suggest they’re growing stronger with time. In fact, their journeys might have only just begun. For example, some of the gems from Season Six (2013, when Hyatt expanded his vision’s scope internationally; tracks 6 and 7 below) are still being discovered.
Of course, it’s a valid question to ask — what could possibly be so special about an exercise that mostly celebrated and reworked older material, mere covers of old songs ultimately? That mainly drew upon classical poetry and famous compositions? Is it not outlandish to rank this alongside the greatest musical advances in popular music?
It’s really quite simple — this was a meeting of East and West that has no parallel in music history. There are many examples of two or more musical styles combining from different parts of the world or region — that’s what Fusion is, of course (like say, the collaborations between Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook — brilliant but also designer esoteric, on Western terms. Or the work of Indian Ocean in its pomp — but their scale was different and they sadly didn’t make too much of an international impact, as they should have). The experiments at Coke Studio in those early days did not depart much from recognisable traditions and yet transformed both forms from within — accomplishing a greater emotional resonance than what had gone before in the name of fusion. Expanding the vocabulary and consciousness of Rock (which obviously has universal relevance), but also giving a new form to traditional music, that actually enhanced its power. Many of the traditional artists expressed this while working on these tracks with Hyatt —that was probably the biggest test for this exercise.
None of this could have happened without Rock having such a strong foundation in Pakistan already, with outstanding talent within a distinct cultural ethos. Rock was the foundation at Coke Studio, the host, if you like, and all other forms — Folk, Semi-Classical, Qawaali, Film music, Ghazal, Devotional music and others, were guests. Never had the individuality of all parties stayed so intact, while simultaneously participating so affectionately in the creation of such a new entity. The role of all this talent and the high quality of source material available for Hyatt to work with obviously cannot be underestimated in this (how could it not be after transcending all this time?), but there are great musical traditions in many parts of the world without such an exercise pulled off with this kind of clarity and power. Unlike any such sustained project anywhere in the world, the accumulative beauty of previous generations was revitalised here in an utterly contemporary form.
The vitality of live performances here (further enhancing the urgency of Rock, given the uniquely immersive circumstances here), even in such a controlled environment, reinvented live music as well, more potently than ever before. This expanded consciousness also meant new audiences created at a particularly difficult time for the music industry worldwide. Not just in Folk and Classical traditions, but especially among the younger generation — again, the value of that goes beyond mere numbers, and perhaps even beyond music. To accomplish all this in the midst of palpable and prominent backward steps culturally (around the world, not just in these parts) is perhaps a contribution that will be fully understood a few decades later.
Hyatt came back at the helm in 2019, producing a very polished and entertaining season of songs (some included below), albeit less experimental but that unique centeredness and clarity of vision was apparent yet again. After a short season in the pandemic year of 2020, he bowed out again.
The enormous success of Coke Studio Pakistan led to other franchises — in India, Africa, the Middle-East and now, Bangladesh. All of them pretty much owe their existence to Rohail Hyatt, who made Coke Studio Pakistan not just commercially viable but a highly noticeable cultural enterprise, and therefore worth pursuing across borders. But it is very unfair to expect any of the other franchises to match up to Hyatt’s best work; he is a once-in-a-generation figure. And again, it is easy to forget that Hyatt was operating in a milieu where the pop/rock scene is far more developed than anywhere else in these parts of the world. Also, his circumstances in those early days allowed a certain kind of immersiveness, the time and energy required to delve that deep and find those connections. Besides, not having a distraction like Bollywood around had already helped enormously in creating a popular culture that valued visceral honesty more perhaps — a quintessential quality of rock, that constituted one half of the exercise here.
Below is a selection of some of the most landmark songs (through essentially 21 chapters, mostly short ones), primarily from that unearthly lot of 107 songs (2009–2013), but also from later. These selections bear the cross of my personal taste — anybody who has followed Coke Studio Pakistan even casually may miss some songs here, that will seem inexplicably excluded. But this page is not meant to be any kind of last word, just a celebration of perhaps the most potent cultural force of this century thus far, anywhere in the world, and hopefully a source of discovery for those who might have missed it, partially or entirely.
1 .
More than any other song in the history of Coke Studio Pakistan, this is the one in 2009 that changed everything. This opening track of Season 2 was the first “devotional” track on the show that also involved a genuine collaboration between a traditional act and a contemporary one.
Saieen Zahoor is one of Pakistan’s folk legends who has sung all his life in Sufi shrines and cut his first album in his mid-sixties. On being approached, he had suggested (to Ali Hamza of Noori) collaborating on this Bulleh Shah kafi (a classical and devotional form of Sufi music), expressing his own desire to do something new as well.
The Noori brothers worked on their parts separately, but on the day of the recording, this seven-minute spontaneous combustion produced a kind of magic no one would be able to explain later — this was literally the first take where all the musicians played together in the studio. This moment that non-atheists would probably refer to as “touched by god”, where the traditional and the contemporary met like never before. Ali Hamza (the third vocalist on this) would later say that no one really understood what had happened that day, and because of that, they weren’t even sure if it had worked.
There are quite a few other songs from Coke Studio Pakistan over the years that have been heard and shared more, but this is likely to remain the gold standard. Its real impact will perhaps be understood years later. Coke Studio comprehensively found its voice with this track, and provided not just the subcontinent, but the world, with a new expression. Rohail Hyatt’s vision of merging the traditional and the contemporary was a true seeking of mystical proportions, not a worldly accomplishment, or worse, a stagey gimmick. And he did it with such uncluttered clarity and simplicity that grace was inevitable.
But the most interesting reason may have been hinted at during a talk Rohail Hyatt himself gave at Harvard in 2015 — where he brought up the universal tuning standard of the A note at 440 Hz for musical instruments, and the relatively short history that has had (about 80–100 years universally). There has been a lot written on how this frequency standard dulls us out and is fundamentally disharmonic and was imposed on populations at different times by authorities (including, supposedly, Joseph Goebbels in 1939) designed to herd people into greater aggressions and all kinds of agitations (military bands, for example, tune their instruments at higher frequencies).
Whether entirely accurate or not, there has been a strong case for A432 Hz tuning, which has been supposedly used more than any other tuning in human history before the twentieth century, as that is more mathematically consistent with the patterns of the universe (and with “earth’s heartbeat”, therefore in synch with nature). There are many who insist that “music tuned from this frequency is easier to listen to, brighter, clearer, and contains more inherent dynamic range”, also creating more spaces. It is not something that can be heard immediately with the naked ear, and may even sound off or flat to the more trained ears because of what they are used to. Some have spoken of the A444 Hz tuning as the solution to that issue, where the C note then has a 528 Hz frequency, which, besides being mentioned in the Old Testament as a “healing note” has also been used for DNA repair by genetic researchers (which is something Hyatt touched upon in the context of his personal experiments) — a pretty staggering intersection of science and religion. (In Malcolm Gladwell’s recent audio book, Paul Simon revealed that his next album — due in 2023 perhaps - incorporates experiments with this tuning as well, for much the same reasons as those mentioned above.)
Even though Hyatt didn’t specifically reveal what the tunings were at Coke Studio (and the audience did not even ask him about it; someone after this fascinating talk actually was more interested in why Hyatt chose to team up with Coke, proceeding to give her own lecture on why that was inappropriate — education seems such an utter waste on some people), since he spoke about this at length, one might perhaps extrapolate that this could be why Coke Studio Pakistan’s music sounded so unusually centred from this early stage.
And if this is indeed true, then this is one of the huge stories of our times, and makes Coke Studio Pakistan’s place in the world even more significant, even outside the realm of music. Apropos to the effect of genetically altered food on our bodies, “what are the effects of unnatural music on the soul?” Hyatt asked at Harvard.
Maybe we’ll find out some day; till then, we have this music.
The very next year after “Aik Alif”, Noori did this track in 2010, rightly considered as much of a classic by many.
This time, they were joined by the Noori brothers’ mother Noor Zehra, on Sagar Veena, an instrument invented by her father in 1970, the only musical instrument developed from scratch by a Pakistani, of which she is the only exponent today in the subcontinent.
The title of this folk song by the legendary Hamid Ali Bela translates to “bow down even more in humility”.
2 .
Brothers Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammed have been among the most sought-after Qawwals in South Asia for more than a few years now. Their family moved from Hyderabad, India to Karachi, Pakistan almost a decade after partition, and even before reaching adulthood made their reputation as gifted Hindustani semi-classical singers.
After “Aik Alif”, this first collaboration with Rohail Hyatt is probably the most groundbreaking moment on Coke Studio, when Rock traditions met the Qawwali/ Hindustani Classical forms halfway on their terms. Rohail Hyatt’s vision of having that accomplished house band just make space for the improvisations of this master duo, with a “Led Zep” backing that enhanced its inherent hypnotic intensity, took this to a level where this couldn’t be called fusion but a cradle.
This produced a world classic, not just a subcontinental landmark; the song also featured that very year in arguably the best moments of Mira Nair’s film The Reluctant Fundamentalist (based on Mohsin Hamid’s book).
The year after Coke Studio and the brothers collaborated on this track, there were three more such formidable tracks — the breathtaking “Khabaram Raseeda”, “Mori Bangri” and “Rung” . (And in 2019, there would be “Aadam”.)
Some get immensely put off with Hindustani Classical meeting Rock like this. But then, by that spirit, nothing would’ve progressed beyond Folk music — Classical music itself wouldn’t exist, Rock and Roll wouldn’t be born, Dylan wouldn’t go electric, Nusrat, Vedder and Buckley wouldn’t influence each other (and their peers) and AR Rahman would still be doing ad jingles. It’s not like the presence of something new has to take the place of the old; they can comfortably co-exist together, and most often, do. What kind of intolerance cannot stand even that?
3 .
Coke Studio Pakistan’s collaborations with the legendary Abida Parveen were always likely to fall bang in the sweet spot for all parties concerned, especially Rohail Hyatt. Sufi Rock was an obvious intersection, and even though it wasn’t a new space for Hyatt particularly, the centred sound that he had begun to craft for Coke Studio sounded fresh and served this material perfectly.
Hyatt produced three classic collaborations with Abida Parveen at Coke Studio — “Ramooz-e-Ishq” (below), “Nigah-e-Darwaishaan” and “Soz-e-Ishq”, all in 2010, for the third season.
After Hyatt’s departure, she came back several times to this space — most memorably in 2014 for “Mein Sufi Hoon”, “Dost” and “Chaap Tilak”, with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan — two modern-day legends collaborating on a 700-year-old classic originally written in Braj Bhasha.
Abida Parveen was always a thoroughly reliable template draw, as later seasons saw her perform (more broad-based) versions of “Balaghal Ula Be Kamalihi” and “Aaqa” (with Ali Sethi), and this collaboration with Ali Azmat — “Ghoom Charakhra”. The highlight perhaps was “Maula-e-Kull” — with this minimalistic rock stillness for her prayer before exploding.
4 .
First cousins Zebunnisa Bangash and Haniya Aslam, both ethnic Pashtuns, did this ethereal version in 2009, of what was called a Pashto folk song, but as detailed by them later — “It’s actually in Darri, which is the dialect of Persian/Faarsi thats spoken in Afghanistan. The chorus (paimana biddeh…..) is an Omar Khayyam rubaii, and the verses are from the folk version of the song from Afghanistan.”
Besides the wonderful vocals and the composition itself, the inspired and subtle arrangement by Rohail Hyatt, with alternate tunings, delicate touches and a beautiful use of the rubab, makes this one of the true classics of Coke Studio Pakistan — it still sounds so fresh after over a decade.
Zeb & Haniya did several tracks on Coke Studio, collaborating brilliantly with a constantly evolving house band, making them one of the most appreciated artists in that space at the time. Like “Chal Diyay” (with Javed Bashir), “Chup” , “Tann Dolay” (with Noori), “Nazaar Eyle”, “Laili Jaan” (with an international house band) and the utterly groovy and immensely popular “Bibi Sanem”.
5 .
Arieb Azhar left Pakistan at age 19 and spent 13 years in Croatia as a rock musician. He came back to Pakistan to connect with the music of his roots. His 2006 album Wajj is one of the true classics of subcontinental independent music — where he sung the traditional poetry of Khawaja Farid, Bulleh Shah and Mian Muhammad Bakhsh around rock arrangements within a specific aesthetic. (He had said after that — “I’m not trying to spread any religious message around the world. I don’t care about preserving folklore. I’m just trying to express myself and in expressing myself, I have to keep expanding myself to include more life around me and more of humanity around me.”)
This track, redoing a song from Wajj (within a Rohail-Hyatt-imagined soundscape), can be classified as Saraiki Rock (though close to Punjabi). It is based on a kafi of Khwaja Farid (1841–1901) — the title translates to “Beauty of Truth” — a song about how all the names of God (in South Asia) are inadequate. It pretty much lists what Truth/ God might be…or not.
In this pathbreaking second season, you can actually sense the house band broadening its consciousness and possibilities with tracks like “Ajab Khail”, and “Mai Ni Main”, while also celebrating the ridiculously high standard of talent in Pakistan within this space. There was also “Mahi Ve”- a collaboration with Canadian Bhangra group Josh.
And there was “Aj Latha Naeeo” — the house band giving their full treatment to a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan classic through the magnificent vocals of Javed Bashir. The extended version here is even more awe-inspiring.
6 .
One of the greatest “fusion” tracks ever, from the Coke Studio laboratory of Season 6 in 2013 (sadly, the most underrated season of all), when Rohail Hyatt imagined a house band featuring musicians from Italy, Serbia, Nepal, Turkey, Bangladesh, Morocco and Norway. And began to explore Classical, Jazz, Blues and Folk in his own way, without labels.
Here, Rustam Fateh Ali Khan begins the track in Karachi, with a composition in an unusual raag.
In Playing For Change style, the action moves to Belgrade, where that uniquely-constructed international house band finds a magic groove.
Then, to Istanbul, where Turkish singing legend Sumru Ağıryürüyen adds her vocals (which is when the track really catches fire), with an old Turkish song feeling its way in.
Then, onto Fez, Morocco, for the Oudh recording.
The final result is awe-inspiring for its many disparate elements finding common cause. Someday, people will wonder how the world where collective human endeavour could sound like this, ended up as it did.
Within the same setup, Sumru Ağıryürüyen featured again in “Ishq Kinara” where Zoe Viccaji vividly invoked Nazia Hasan as if she had lived during the Coke Studio days, within a Turkish soundscape.
7 .
This loop-worthy beauty also from Rohail Hyatt’s sixth and final consecutive season in 2013 (with that same international house band) is a popular Balochi folk song sung by Sweden-based Iranian Balochi singer Rostam Mirlashari.
Rohail Hyatt’s ability to bring out the true essence and beauty of a song needs no better evidence than this. Especially from the way he uses the accordion and the Hardanger fiddle — a Norwegian instrument that is often used for dancing (accompanied by rhythmic loud foot-stomping).
It is very interesting to see how this song has travelled — this is footage from 1973 of legendary folk singer Faiz Mohammad Faizok, who made the song popular in the first place. And this is the pop/ dance version that released in 2019 of Ali Zafar and 12-year-old Balochi singer Urooj Fatima that is easily the most popular of all its versions (with 43 million views till date).
An inherently beautiful song such as this will always stand on its feet whatever the arrangements. But this supremely elegant Coke Studio version will perhaps make the song travel the farthest in time.
This season continues throwing up undiscovered gems even today — like “Aamay Bhashaili Rey” — a quintessentially elegant and affecting meeting of erstwhile East and West Pakistan. Merging a Bhaitali Bengali folk song with a traditional Pahadi thumri, with an absolutely inimitable Rohail Hyatt stillness, it takes both two time-honoured compositions to a completely new place together, becoming a subcontinental masterpiece for generations.
It is actually surprising that it took 9 years after this track for Coke Studio Bangladesh to become reality.
8 .
Rooted Balochi folk expression from the legendary Akhtar Chanal Zahri and a superbly spirited multi-hued performance from contemporary artist Komal Rizvi resulted in one of the most enjoyable highlights in the 2011 season, which remains one of the classics of Coke Studio Pakistan.
The song eventually caught fire because of Komal Rizvi, for the sheer spirit she imbued proceedings with, which the band (who were simply rocking here) palpably responded to. Once she got into “Lal Meri Pat”, she comprehensively owned the song.
These two artists came together again with “Washmallay” three years later in the first post-Rohail Hyatt season, led by Strings (who appeared to build on the ideas developed by Hyatt, but considerably broad-based their approach). Before that, in 2012, Komal Rizvi went solo with a classic Reshma song. The house band gave it a beautiful contemporary feel, and Rizvi herself gave a moving rendition, with a distinct, lived-in personality in her voice that transcended all its imperfections, making it more human, more compelling than what many purists could perhaps accept, or even grasp.
The collaboration above was probably designed (old traditional act with glamorous contemporary pop artist) to replicate the astounding success of “Alif Allah (Jugni)” from the previous year. When renowned Pakistani folk singer Arif Lohar had teamed up with then upcoming Meesha Shafi in their country’s most visible musical space and produced one of the biggest hits in Pakistan in the last decade, their refrain here gradually resembling a hypnotic qawaali chant.
Meesha Shafi would go on to become a big star with Coke Studio perhaps making the biggest contribution to that. She gave quite a few performances on this platform, none probably more affecting than this stately rendition of a Faiz Ahmed Faiz classic, with the house band once again managing to find a fresh expression. Hyatt’s ability to pull off a contemporary treatment with so much dignity without diluting it in any way is one thing, but to even conceive of revisiting a song so emphatically considered an Iqbal Bano classic demonstrates his audaciousness and courage.
Another example of Hyatt’s ability to provide just a quiet little angular touch that lifts the song beyond what can be imagined by most lies in this track from 2011 as well. Zoe Viccaji’s gentle humming takes this Rajasthani song with a semi-classical soul, sung beautifully by Asif Hussain Samraat, to a new place.
9 .
One of the most underrated Coke Studio Pakistan classics (from 2012) is like comfort food, for the beautiful singing and the particular genius of Rohail Hyatt.
Chakwal is in Punjab, Pakistan, and its traditional singing called “dhol geet” involves a team of male singers in two groups singing in a high pitch with a drum beater in the background.
Rohail Hyatt’s affectionate attempt to introduce this music to new generations via the tools available to him at Coke Studio did not go down well with some traditionalists, but forget the new ground definitely broken here, it sounds so good! A masterful simplicity that is absolutely unique.
In that same season, they collaborated on two other tracks. With Meesha Shafi on “Ishq Aap Bhe Awalla” — another compelling rendition, made more popular by the latter’s participation. And with Pakistani rapper Bohemia on “Kandyaari Dhol Geet” — that, due to its synching with increasing musical relevance in the last decade, has had an increased audience as well.
10 .
Another centred Coke Studio classic from 2010, where a unique version of the song came into being, thanks to the newly imagined soundscape. (Something like this might have the starting point.)
Born in Dhaka, brought up in Kabul and moving to Karachi in the 1970s, Tina Sani worked in Advertising for many years. As one of Pakistan’s most famous classical/ semi-classical Ghazal singers, she has a vocal style considered her own. Many consider this composition to be the best for this Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem.
Arieb Azhar’s recitation at the end is like an answer to her pleas — an interesting (and moving) twist in the ostensible anguished cries of a working class person to the powerful.
11 .
In Rohail Hyatt’s comeback 2019 season, he harked back to his golden period from a decade ago, invoking “Aik Alif” and beginning this new season with a devotional song.
That restraint and uncluttered vividness back again.
The above choice might also have been somewhat influenced by the massive success of this same artist’s song in the same space, produced by Strings in 2015. Which transformed a landmark Sabri Brothers Qawwali “Tajdar-e-Haram” — which translates to “The King of Sacred Places”.
Even now, this remains the most-seen Coke Studio Pakistan video till date and it is fitting that it is such a high quality rendition — it is one of the two crown jewels of post-Hyatt Coke Studio. Strings favoured a busier soundscape than Hyatt most times but in its essence, this perhaps owes quite a bit to the aesthetic Hyatt had established before them, in transforming a popular qawwali into such a landmark devotional song.
12 .
Even if you’re not into funk music, the transformation of Sindhi Folk into something never heard before, and probably since, is something to truly savour. Giving both funk and Sindhi folk a broader audience.
Rohail Hyatt’s imagination and the peerless house band delivered this gem in 2012.
13 .
In Rohail Hyatt’s comeback season in 2019, one of the finest singers in the subcontinent working with a band at the absolute top of its game (right down to the background vocals) transformed an Abida Parveen classic into one in its own right.
That this powerhouse talent could be as nervous as she admitted to being during a rehearsal (in probably the best “behind-the-scenes” CS film of all) and the manner in which her vulnerability was assuaged by the musicians, is testimony to the humanity in the room, which can be heard in the song.
Sanam Marvi did several affecting performances on Coke Studio before and after this as well. These two tracks from that internationally pathbreaking Season 6 (2013) were perhaps among the most interesting — “Rabba Ho” (with Saieen Zahoor) and “Yaar Vekho”.
14 .
Taking what was originally a suggestive “item” song from the 1990s (in a Pakistani Punjabi film called Choorian), the sort “the god-fearing aunties cringe at and the colourful uncles stealthily watch when the aunties are absent”, and a club version by Overload in 2011, this mostly acoustic version, with its crisp delivery, is an experimental masterpiece.
It is safe to say that a soundscape such as this had never come together in any context, as this did in 2012. All kinds of sounds and instruments are thrown into the mix (the very beginning even seems to curiously approximate a didjeridu, just created through guitars). A violin piped up, then a wedding band stepped into the robust rock song, a folk drum came in and went, trumpet, brass and clarinet reappeared, an electric guitar started howling — all single-mindedly serving the song, while Rachel Viccaji made her debut as CS lead vocalist in a language she had never spoken in before this (Punjabi), in a duet with the multi-talented Farhad Humayun who normally also played drums (he died tragically in 2021 at the age of 42).
Despite Overload’s club version in 2011 having some of these elements, no one other than Rohail Hyatt and this house band could have attempted such a thing in a space like this, forget pulling it off with such élan and, particularly, clarity.
15 .
This track was a departure in the 2012 season in that instead of the Coke studio house band playing the lead role, progressive rock band Qayaas featured primarily.
Keeping Rohail Hyatt’s idea of two disparate musical entities merging, Atif Aslam was brought into the mix, as a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan classic was scintillatingly transformed. (There’s Led Zeppelin in there too, not that it really matters.)
In no small measure due to Umair Jaswal’s vocals as well, and how the band sound, this might just the finest pure rock moment on Coke Studio till date.
16 .
The band Noori will always hold a special place in the history of Coke Studio. They were at the centre of it all when the show found its voice in the second landmark season of 2009, first with “Aik Alif” and then with their solo songs performed in a different way by the house band. Like this one, where the brothers Ali Hamza and Ali Noor never really agreed on how to do this old track that they had first done in 1998.
But the Coke Studio version, which included a sitar at its centre, found a clarity that even the show simply did not have in the first season, even when they had done even more famous songs (like Strings’ best-known tracks).
This track was derided by some for its “banal” lyrics, missing the point somewhat. Lyrics have never been the point in rock and roll — in fact, it is often imperative for the words to not take attention away from the melody or the intensity of the song.
Many of Noori’s performances over the years stay classics in the space they appear to have flowered the most emphatically. Like “Keedar”, “Saari Raat” , and this collaboration with Zeb & Haniya — “Tann Dolay” , all with Rohail Hyatt as producer. Even later, they were a significant presence here (with Strings as producer) — for instance, “O Re” and their third masterpiece on a traditional tune “Paar Chanaa De” — more on that right at the end.
17.
Fittingly, this closed Rohail Hyatt’s six consecutive seasons in 2013 (the theme that season was not for the entire song to be played live but constructed step-by-step), as the song (“Allah Hu”) had featured twice in the very first season and was often provided as evidence by Hyatt himself for what spaces Coke was willing to go into during this project.
Fittingly ending with Saieen Zahoor, whose collaboration with Noori — “Aik Alif” helped this space find its true voice. Here, he is joined by Abrar-ul-Haq. Inspired by Saieen Zahoor, Abrar composed his whole section in just 20 minutes apparently and sung it beautifully.
After 133 songs in 6 years, this is the track Rohail Hyatt bowed out with.
18 .
In the 2011 season, Rohail Hyatt took a catchy pop track by Pakistani band Jal and fused it, his crisp clarity in full play, with a contemporary Sufi classic (written by Allan Fakir & Muhammad Ali Shehki in the mid-1980s) through the affecting vocals of Quratulain Balouch and came up with something greater than the sum of its parts.
They did it again with “Ik Aarzu” which merged with “Mast Qalandar”.
From the same season, another example of this centred approach to catchy pop resulted in a song that doesn’t just stand on its feet but has got stronger with time. 24-year-old singer-songwriter Bilal Khan found his popularity escalating considerably after this performance.
It was no one-off; he repeated it again next year with “Larho Mujhey” — though that found another potent context before it became popular. Today, this song resonates in Pakistan for those filled with political fervour. That connection too is not new.
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Based in the UAE now, Pakistan musician Sajjad Ali has done serious Classical music, become an accomplished pop songwriter and performer gradually, and also directed feature films. AR Rahman calls him the “original crossover artist” (in terms of his talent in different forms of music) and a “complete singer”. In 2011, he did this fun novelty track for Coke Studio.
Only Rohail Hyatt could have conceived of a soundscape like this, where Punjabi folk meets American Country Western, and a great deal else, organically, and sound so unified.
This is why so many musicians considered Coke Studio Pakistan as the ultimate place to harness their talent, and perhaps still do. In the 2012 season, the Coke Studio band took a seemingly slight pop song by Lahore band Symt, merged it with Sanam Marvi’s vocals, and took it to a place that no one besides Rohail Hyatt could have perhaps imagined with this material.
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Rohail Hyatt’s comeback in 2019 was notable for its overall excellence, even though the season did not result in masterpieces or anthems like those in his previous landmark seasons (except “Hairaan Hua” — number 13 above). It could also be because the Strings-helmed sessions produced far higher eyeballs than Hyatt’s period had done, not just due to a conscious attempt to be more accessible but because it also rode on many of the discoveries through experiments during those early seasons, and that might have forced Hyatt’s hand a bit too in this season.
But the highlights of this season are the likely to stand the test of time as well in their own way, for their quintessentially elegant lightness-of-touch.
Like this crisp east-west, old-style-contemporary arrangement pulled off brilliantly. Long-time house band background vocalist Rachel Viccaji, came to the fore here, with Shuja Haider - a highly respected singer-composer from Karachi in a song originally written by his grandfather. With a restraint and simplicity that are hallmarks of Hyatt.
And Rachel’s sister, Zoe Viccaji, who had also been a background vocalist with the house band previously, did this duet with a current background singer Shahab Hussain, as her sister had her own fun from the background vocals trenches, while encouraging her promoted colleague.
A seemingly slight pop ditty transformed to something crisply catchy, effortlessly and organically fusing jazz rhythms and eastern elements in pure pop. You had to call it the breeze.
Other highlights from that year included the hushed sophistication of a Kashmiri classic “Roshe”, the lively duet “Dhola”, the 1990s monster pop hit brought well into the 21st century “Billo”, the 1980s film song redone “Mundiya” and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s quintessential gravity in “Dam Mastam”.
And in the shortened 2020 season, Hyatt’s farewell at least for now, the opener “Na Tutteya Ve” where all the female artists of the season featured, was the biggest crowd-puller. Perhaps the pressure of pulling in those crowds was not Hyatt’s thing. It never really had been.
Coke Studio was silent in 2021, but the 2022 season (with Xulfi as producer), despite the magnificence of “Tu Jhoom” and the monster popularity of “Pasoori” is probably the most mediocre season till date, with a strange accent on visual splendour than the music itself. There is little doubt that this decline is due to the focus on popularity and eyeballs, rather than a lack of imagination. Meanwhile, the rapidly declining standards in the audience and the pitifully poor standard of discourse today in the media obviously do not help. Hailing the flavour-of-the-month popularity of “Pasoori” as a shining example of Coke Studio’s genius (as has happened widely) is like judging a person’s value based on his Twitter following.
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However, to also give credit where it is due, in the five seasons between 2014 and 2018, after Rohail Hyatt left, Coke Studio Pakistan went to another level commercially while also showcasing some wonderful talents and material. The season openers were always interesting and stirring — “Hum Dekhenge” , “Qaumi Taranah”, “Aye Rah-e-Haq Ke Shaheedo” and Sohni Dharti.
Rendering a Rajasthani wedding song through the band and then adding an aalaap into an elegant contemporary piece with “Phool Banro”, seamlessly mixing Qawwali with an Avadhi wedding song (about bidaai — the idea that a daughter’s soul remains with the parents even after she leaves home after marriage) in “Hare Hare Baans”, setting Amir Khusro’s poetry to a scarcely believable east-west arrangement in “Sakal Ban” (like the Nusrat-like moments fused with true-blue rock and roll near the end) — all three here criminally underrated.
There was a lot more. Revitalising an old pop hit from the Biddu days with true freshness with “Dheere Dheere”, giving space to a 96-year-old singer to upstage a current pop superstar in “Kadi Aao Ni”, the elegant rock treatment to Raag Bhairvi in this traditional thumri with sarangi and the late Aamir Zaki’s melancholic guitar in “Naina Moray”, rock and roll Qawaali originally written by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in “Tu Kuja Man Kuja”, revisiting an explored tune again in a fresh way with “Charkha”, full-on satirical fun with “Rockstar” that even Hrithik Roshan tweeted about (displaying his good taste), recreating a 40-year-old iconic collaborative musical moment by descendants of two legends with “Rang”, giving a lush treatment to a now-classic Pakistani pop song with an array of contemporary stars without losing its soul at all with “Us Rah Par”, taking the meeting of Qawaali and Rock on a more popular pathway with “Piya Ghar Aaya” and “Afreen Afreen”, giving recent tunes a new feel as with “Nadiya”, taking folk tunes to a new place like with Sammi Meri Waar, creating new tracks with the élan of a former classic like “Aaja Re Moray Saiyaan”, recreating a super-fun 1960s dance tune that so many love to hate in this space “Ko Ko Korina” (or for that matter, “Hawa Hawa”), the first proper Indo-Pak collaboration in this space “Kinaray” (Sharmistha Chatterjee with Mekal Hassan Band) — it’s not like Coke Studio Pakistan dropped the ball during this period.
But, as stated above, there was palpably less seeking and more pleasing during these years. Many of the songs, sometimes over-produced, veered towards euphony and popularity, which it duly accomplished in many cases. There was some dolled-up mediocrity as well. The benefit-of-doubt that Hyatt earned the hard way for Coke Studio in the early days, taken through the MBA gaze that runs the world, was always bound to be converted to unabashed attempts to pander. It was imminent, but even through that, Coke Studio Pakistan did not lose its soul.
The second crown jewel during this period (along with “Tajdar-e-Haram, number 11 above), once again came from Noori — their third masterpiece take on a traditional tune. (Perhaps it is fitting to end this page with Noori after beginning with them.)
Their mother played Sagar Veena on this one as well and Shilpa Rao provided touchingly elegant vocals for it. She had introduced the Noori brothers to this song in Delhi after a concert; the song itself is about the Sohni Mahiwal tragedy. This was produced by Strings but the foundation Hyatt laid a few years ago in this space can be heard here as well (though it would probably have been quite a bit sparser with him in charge). Post-Hyatt, the music may have been busier and ‘brighter’ —within all of that, this is one of its most affecting moments.
Ending with a Pakistan-India collaboration in this case is fitting as well, given the massive audience for Coke Studio Pakistan in India. Most people in India, regardless of video viewership numbers, consider Pakistan’s CS to be superior in quality (as it indeed has been, by a mile). This is particularly poignant at a time when the current dispensation in India chooses to portray Pakistan as “the enemy” (especially during elections) and is othering Muslims in the country like never before in independent India’s history.
It is one of the great ironies of these times as well that despite being one of the countries most associated in the past with terrorism and sectarian violence, Pakistan here has perhaps done more than any other country in the world to bring disparate cultures together to create something new.
The scale of humanity on display in the Coke Studio Pakistan songs, amplified particularly during the classic 2009–2013 period through Rohail Hyatt’s particular sensibility, also shows a timely mirror to those who find reasons to not be grateful for the past in these descending-into-madness times. What west, what east, what cultural appropriation? If we cannot recognise our own potential when such beauty smacks us on the face, which belongs to all of us, what kind of future lies waiting?
Jaideep Varma
Mumbai, India
May 2022
jebbit@gmail.com