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Mekaal Hasan Band

Pakistani sufi rock band

Summary

Pakistani sufi rock band

Field	Value
name	Mekaal Hasan Band
image	MHB 2015.jpg
caption	Mekaal Hasan Band - Live in Canada at Celebration Square, Mississauga
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
genre	Alternative rock, Sufi rock, Jazz
origin	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
years_active	2000 – present
label	Sadaf Stereo, ARY Musik The Musik Records, EMI/Virgin Records,Times Music,
website	mekaalhasanband.com
associated_acts	Junoon, Zeb and Haniya, Noori, Entity Paradigm, Jal, Rubberband (band)
current_members	Mekaal Hasan
Mohammad Ahsan Papu
Sharmistha Chatterjee
Sheldon D'Silva
Gino Banks
Agha Ibrahim Akram
Amir Azhar
past_members	Asad Abbas
Riaz Ali Khan
Sameer Ahmed
Javed Bashir
Kami Paul

Mohammad Ahsan Papu Sharmistha Chatterjee Sheldon D'Silva Gino Banks Agha Ibrahim Akram Amir Azhar Riaz Ali Khan Sameer Ahmed Javed Bashir Kami Paul

Mekaal Hasan Band (), sometimes shortened to MHB, is a progressive rock band, founded in 2001 by the Pakistani guitarist, composer and producer, Mekaal Hasan. The Mekaal Hasan Band is known for being innovators of a progressive style of music which finds its melodic roots in South Asian traditional musical and literary art forms, some of which include Qawali, Sufiana Kalam and in general, traditional material culled from Indian and Pakistani culture and folkloric traditions. This also led to the formation of a Mekaalians (a super group) led by Wazir Taqi and Najeeb Ur Rehman from islamabad

Formed in Lahore, Pakistan in 2001 by composer, guitarist and producer Mekaal Hasan, the "band" comprises a revolving cast of Pakistani and International artists/musicians/visual artists and creators.

The band's music has often been hailed as being deeply rooted to South Asian culture, while managing to communicate to modern audiences in contemporary musical settings.

The band members have roots in different genres, including jazz, Indian/Pakistani traditional classical, 70's Progressive Rock, Old School R'n'b, 70's Funk and Soul, creating a sound which has earned the band fans from a variety of quarters. They are also known for their small yet passionate fanbase.

History

Early years (1995–2004)

Songwriter Mekaal Hasan, born in Lahore, Pakistan, was surrounded by music since childhood. His mother was a Christian and father, Masood Hasan, a Muslim, passionate for jazz music who influenced him throughout his early years. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, Mekaal studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, and his stay there exposed him to a wide variety of music and musicians, many of whom are influences on him to this day. His parents encouraged him to come back to Lahore, Pakistan by offering to build him a studio. So he returned to Lahore in 1995. After some initial hard struggle, Mekaal Hasan had a big musical breakthrough in Pakistan in 2004.

In March 2001, Mekaal collaborated with Pete Lockett in a series of concerts countrywide featuring music written for Pete and classical artists by Mekaal.

Mekaal Hasan has worked with many other fellow-musicians like Ali Azmat, Atif Aslam, Jal Band, Noori, Zeb and Haniya, Meesha Shafi, Poor Rich Boy, Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammad Qawwal and many more musicians.

''Pepsi Battle of the Bands''

The band entered the first season of the music television series Pepsi Battle of the Bands, in an effort to win the competition and earn a lucrative album deal from Pepsi. The band finished third, behind Aaroh and Entity Paradigm who finished first and second respectively.

''Sampooran'' (2004–2008)

Mekaal Hasan Band released their debut album, Sampooran, in 2004 through EMI/Virgin Records.

''Saptak'' (2009–2010)

Mekaal Hasan Band, released their second album in October 2009. They also released their video of a single "Chal Bulleya" on 2 October 2009.

On 3 February 2010, the band's vocalist Javed Bashir decided to part ways after working along with the band for 8 years. On 26 December, in an online poll by Dawn, the band's video for their single, "Chal Bulleya", was voted as the best music video of 2010.

''Andholan'' (2014)

Mekaal Hasan Band's latest album featuring the all new lineup was released September 2014 in Pakistan and India across iTunes, Taazi, Amazon Music, and other platforms. Mekaal Hasan Band released just one video from a live performance of the track "Ghunghat". Despite being a live performance, it won song of the year in The Express Tribunes Critics Choice and in the reader polls, and was also declared 2014's song of the year by Dawn. The album was removed from GIMA Awards for having "foreign roots", although the album featured Indian vocalist Sharmistha Chatterjee in all the songs.

Discography

;Studio albums

Sampooran (2004)
Saptak (2009)
Andholan (2014)

Band members

;Current

Mekaal Hasan – lead guitar (2001–present)
Mohammad Ahsan Papu – flute (2001–present)
Sharmistha Chatterjee – lead vocals (2013–present)
Sheldon D'Silva – bass (2013–present)
Gino Banks – Drummer (2013–present)

;Former

Riaz Ali Khan – lead vocals (2001–2002)
Sameer Ahmed – bass guitar (2001–2009)
Asad Abbas – lead vocals (2010–2011)
Javed Bashir – lead vocals (2002–2010,2011–2013)
Amir Azhar – bass (2009–2013)
Kami Paul – Drummer (2012–2013)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:120 top:15 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2001 till: TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2001 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:2001

Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:guitar value:teal legend:Lead_guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:flute value:lavender legend:Flute id:lines value:black legend:Studio_albums

LineData = at:01/08/2004 color:black layer:back at:10/16/2009 color:black layer:back at:09/17/2014 color:black layer:back

BarData = bar:Riaz text:"Riaz Ali Khan" bar:Javed text:"Javed Bashir" bar:Asad text:"Asad Abbas" bar:Sharmishta text:"Sharmistha Chatterjee" bar:Hasan text:"Mekaal Hasan" bar:Sameer text:"Sameer Ahmed" bar:Amir text:"Amir Azhar" bar:Sheldon text:"Sheldon D'Silva" bar:Kami text:"Kami Paul" bar:Gino text:"Gino Banks" bar:Ahsan text:"Mohammad Ahsan Papu"

PlotData = width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Riaz from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2002 color:Vocals bar:Javed from:01/01/2002 till:03/02/2010 color:Vocals bar:Javed from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2013 color:Vocals bar:Asad from:03/02/2010 till:01/01/2011 color:Vocals bar:Sharmishta from:01/01/2013 till:end color:Vocals bar:Hasan from:01/01/2001 till:end color:Guitar bar:Sameer from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2009 color:Bass bar:Amir from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2010 color:Bass bar:Sheldon from:01/01/2013 till:end color:Bass bar:Kami from:01/01/2012 till:01/01/2013 color:Drums bar:Gino from:01/01/2013 till:end color:Drums bar:Ahsan from:01/01/2001 till:end color:Flute

References

Qureshi. (6 October 2008). "Mekaal Hasan: Making Music On The Fault Line (Mekaal Hasan Interview)".
Sabeeh. (15 October 2017). "Mekaal Hasan's quest for creating social change through music". [[The News International]].
(2010-12-26). "Opinion Poll: Who ruled 2010?".
Sabeeh. (20 August 2017). "Discovering the opulent sounds of the Mekaal Hasan Band". [[The News International]].
(2014-12-30). "Top 10 songs of 2014".
Salahuddin, Zahra. (2014-12-28). "2014: Pakistan's year of music idols, festivals and indie bands".
Anwer. (11 February 2015). "Mekaal Hasan Band disqualified from Global Indian Music Awards". [[Dawn (newspaper).

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

musical-groups-established-in-1999 pakistani-musical-trios pakistani-rock-music-groups pakistani-musical-groups musical-groups-from-lahore pakistani-world-music-groups 1999-establishments-in-pakistan jam-bands

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