Is A.R. Rahman the busiest man in music?

A.R. Rahman’s participation in Rock The Tabla got me thinking: is he the busiest man in music?

In addition to Rock The Tabla, we will shortly see the fruits of another Rahman project, which he has been working on for the past few months. SuperHeavy, the supergroup featuring Rahman, Mick Jagger, ‘Eurythmic’ Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian Marley, release their album in September.

We all know A.R. Rahman primarily as a film composer. In Europe and the US most of us know him for his scores for the blockbusters Slumdog Millionaire (for which he won 2 Oscars) and 127 Hours, but he is also astonishingly prolific as a composer for Indian film music. In fact, TIME magazine described him as “the world’s most prominent and prolific film composer”. At his home in Chennai he has a state of the art multi-studio complex, with each studio working constantly on a different film score. In the last 20 years he has composed scores for well over 100 films, comparing favourably against Hollywood’s big guns John Williams, Hans Zimmer and the late John Barry.

Rahman has composed music for TV shows, documentaries and ad jingles. He wrote the music for the theatre production of Lord of the Rings, and in 2010 he composed the official theme tune for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He also regularly composes music for countless other artists. Earlier this year Rahman contributed to Michael Bolton’s album Gems: The Duets Collection.

All this in between world tours and media interviews. Hossam says that when he was recording with Rahman at his home in Chennai, Rahman was in 12-15 interviews daily for Indian magazines and radio.

There is probably much, much more which I have failed to mention.

Is A.R. Rahman the busiest man in music? It would be hard to imagine anyone busier. As Hossam says, “I don’t think we have really discovered this man’s full dimensions or the extent of his creativity yet”. So what else does he have in store for us?

Welcome to Rock The Tabla

Welcome to the blog for Rock The Tabla, Hossam Ramzy’s biggest, most ambitious, and best album release to date.

Rock The Tabla has been a big part of Hossam’s life for a long time. The idea was born 10 years ago, and Hossam has been lovingly and meticulously piecing the album together ever since. As Hossam himself says, “perfection takes time”.

Of course, in those ten years Hossam has also released numerous other albums on ARC Music and other labels, and has produced many others. He has travelled the world with his Egyptian dance concerts and workshops, worked on albums with some of the biggest pop stars of the day (including Ricky Martin and Shakira), contributed to several motion picture soundtracks, and still managed to dedicate himself to Rock The Tabla. I believe ‘prolific’ is the word…

Hossam is a serial collaborator. He loves the freedom that working with other artists allows him, as well as the challenge of creating a symbiotic fusion of different styles. Whether it is Pino Danieli, Sting, or the stars of Led Zeppelin, Hossam relishes the opportunity to inject his own brand of the Egyptian style into the music.

That is essentially the objective of Rock The Tabla. Hossam wanted to create a unique fusion of styles by collaborating with some of the artists he truly admires, loves and respects. The fact that A.R. Rahman, Billy Cobham, Manu Katché, Omar Faruk Tekbilek and many others were only too willing to take part is testament to the respect that the musical world holds for Hossam Ramzy.

In Hossam’s words, “You can expect music that is born out of love and respect for these artists and music that really just moves me personally. I want to introduce you to the other aspects of music that I also love. Not only the Egyptian dance music, I also want you to enjoy some of the fusions that I work with.”

And yes, as the album name suggests, it certainly rocks.

There will be much more to come from this blog and rockthetabla.com in the weeks preceding and following the release of Rock The Tabla. So stay tuned; you don’t want to miss anything.

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