One morning in early 2021, I was listening to my usual writing playlist of Sufi music on shuffle when the playlist ended and a new song I had never heard before started playing. The song was 'Yogi' — a collaboration between poet-artist Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, singer-songwriter Shayan Chowdhury Arnob, and musician Soumya Murshidabadi based on a poem by the 15th-century Sufi mystic Sant Kabir Das. It was the first time I heard Murshidabadi's music.
Almost 4 years to the day, we spoke last week about his travels, his music which draws from India's rich and diverse folk music traditions like Qawwali, Fakiri Gaan, Baul Gaan, and his training in Indian classical music.
"My training started with Pt. Gautam Bhattacharya ji in Berhampore, Murshidabad from very scratch," Murshidabadi says. "I was drawn to music because of him. He is the disciple of late Ustad Abu Daud Khan Sahab, the legendary Khayal virtuoso from Murshidabad. After he passed away, Gautam-Ji joined Ustad Rashid Khan Sahab and since I was learning with Gautam-Ji at that time, we would all learn and be heavily inspired by Rashid Khan Sahab or 'Bade Guruji' as we would respectfully address him. I got a very brief chance to learn from him through workshops and a few master classes. But him coming to Murshidabad and us meeting him up close in 2009 was a life changing moment for my musical journey. It was all possible due to the guidance of my guruji Pandit Gautam Bhattacharya-Ji."
Murshidabadi, or Murshid — meaning 'guide' or 'teacher' in Arabic and Urdu — as his friends call him, travelled extensively during the early days of his career. "I have met mystics, criminals, qalandars, poets in dargahs (Sufi shrine) across India. The music that gives them 'trip' was not very distant from what I was doing. So I was naturally drawn to them and later on in my Sufi journey, it impacted me a lot. I try to collect moments and time through my renditions keeping the 'raga-ang gayaki' of the Rampur style."
"If music is communication for me, I had to travel to see what people are talking about."Soumya Murshidabadi, The Murshidabadi Project
"During my travel across villages in Bengal and Rajasthan, I fell in love with folk music," Murshid says. "Especially in Nadia and Murshidabad, the now extinct Bengali Qawwali style existed for years to spread the message of love and peace of Sufism. Golam Faqir, Armaan Faqir, and many others taught me many songs which I tried to curate in my projects. My song 'Dewana' from Coke Studio Bangla Season 2 was taught to me by Armaan Faqir of Nadia."
Over the past half-decade, Murshidabadi and The Murshidabadi Project — the folk music collective led by him — have taken Indian folk music traditions to new heights through cross-border collaborations with musicians from across the world. These artists — like Malak El Husseini and Abdul Khaleq — in turn influence his music-making practice. With lots of new collaborations and projects on the horizon, Murshid has certainly been busy.
"For the last 5 years, that I have moved to Goa, I have been inspired by many Persian and Latin African instruments which someday may pop up in my future songs!"Soumya Murshidabadi, The Murshidabadi Project
"There’s a big collaboration which coming very very soon which I’m not in a position to share at the moment!" Murshid teased. "I will release an original song written by me which I had recorded with Arnob back in 2019 on my YouTube channel! There’s a song I recorded for Q’s movie 'Zewel', which is an absolute crazy garage-underground Electro Sufi hip-hop by Burning Deck and Q."
In the meantime, The Murshidabadi Project has begun to travel the country with their live Sufi set 'Saat Maqam Ishq Ke' — the Seven Stages of Sufi Love — as Murshidabadi Project Live!
Follow The Murshidabadi Project here.
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