One of the things I most appreciate about this pioneer of the ghazal is her ability to fuse ghazals with other types of music, and in the case of my newly-favored old album of hers, titled Qareeb (Nearness), she absorbs jazz into play with the standard tabla and vocals; saxophone (which I'm told is Ray Charles himself) plays around with the strums of bass and the regular taal (beat) of the tabla to produce a type of music that could be considered phenomenal back in 1988, especially as this was before the huge globalization of music in the following decade. The beauty of the ghazal is partly to be able to incorporate a wide range of emotions while having the lyrics in the style of rhyme (aa, ba, ca, da, etc.), and some of these startled me at first, once the meaning of the lyrics strikes you. Soem of the lyrics, such as those for Zikr Hai Apna Mehfil Mehfil (Remembrance is One's Own Festival) contain lines such as "soch samajh kar dhoka khaana, bachtana tera pyaar nibhaana " (Conciously, knowingly be cheated, and regret the fulfillment of your love), which made me wonder what kind of hidden message is here in the song, that too in a song talking about being close to a lover through memory. Other ghazals that struck me were Dil Laga Ya Tha, whose melodic lines stuck in my head and Karun Na Yaad, whose lyrics touched in their own sensitivity to love. All of this delivered in the velvety voice of Najma Akhtar, whose ear for musical soundness continues to inspire me. And as a last note on the music, the fusion brought in through the instruments makes me feels as though the title Qareeb hints not only at the nearness of one to her beloved, but also a nearness of East and West, attained through the jazzy background of these largely romantic ghazals.
