Muslim & Sikh Revive Rabab & Trumpet

A refreshing alliance between musicians Qais Essar, an Afghan-American Muslim, and Sonny Singh, an American Sikh. Together, they are composing an album, Sangat, using the Rabab (a string instrument) and Trumpet, which harks back to the defining narratives of Bhakti and Sufi movements (two prominent socio-religious movements in Hinduism and Islam). Among its three compositions released so far, one is an iconic Sufi song, Lal meri pat, praising the 12^th Century mystic Shabaaz Qalandar, and the other two are the renditions of Sikh hymns reimagined on the warm timbre of rabab and accented by the jazzy, raw harmonics of trumpet. Singh describes the album as a project that is not only a meeting of diverse musical and spiritual traditions, but also a reflection of art as a vehicle for connection, resistance and healing. 'In the Sikh community, we generally refer to worshippers inside a Gurdwara as sangat (beloved community). In this project, we would like to define sangat as something broader, where our ethnic, national and religious identities are porous.' Sonny and Qais started working on Sangat in October 2024. Recorded mostly in Qais’s studio in Payson, Arizona, Sangat will be released in October through his indie label and production company Ghost Songs. With five albums and 12 Extended Plays to his credit, Qais’s merit in pursuing music through rabab commands attention. He confirms his family’s commitment to art, poetry, and music—stating that his grandfather played tambour—but, he assures: 'I am the first rabab player in my family.' Rabab is the national instrument of Afghanistan, the country from where Qais’s parents migrated to the US in 1982. The instrument, though not banned, is under threat from Taliban’s ban on music. In the Sikh community, the conversations on the rabab gathered steam in 2022 when the Akal Takht (Eternal Throne) Jathedar (leader) requested the replacement of the harmonium with traditional string instruments such as the dilruba, rabab, and sarangi in kirtan (hymn singing) at the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple).