SHAHZAD ISMAILY AND EXPECTATIONS

On February 26, 2019, Vancouver’s Western Front hosted a solo performance by Shahzad Ismaily. Being raised in a multi-cultural household, Shahzad Ismaily was born to Pakistani immigrant parents.This largely self-thought artist, has a masters in biochemistry from Arizona State University but has also studied music in countries such as Japan, Mexico, Indonesia Turkey, Morocco and Iceland. Aside from performing with well-known bands all over the world, he has also composed for theatre and dance. This multi-instrumentalist and composer has played with musicians such as Lou Reed, Tom Waits, John Zorn, Jolie Holland, and more. In this concert though, he performed on not one but several instruments by himself, creating a great range of variety in one show. In this paper, I will argue how through his art of improvisation along with various elements of the informal quality of the performance itself, he played with human expectations and at many points exceeded it. 

Shahzad Isamily. Photo by Stefanie Kulish.

Ismaily started the concert with a short talk in which he firstly requested the audience to leave whenever they want to leave and secondly asked them not to applause until the end of the performance. Having him talk directly to the audience and to ask them for these simple favors already broke the fourth wall and created a more casual atmosphere. Also, having a glass of wine next to him, which later in the performance he would sip on between pieces, as much as it was a small detail, added more to the informality. Another factor that contributed to the casual quality of the show was his unexpected outfit; Ismaily was wearing a onesie. Choosing to wear a garment which is categorized as sleep-wear may have pushed the informality a bit too far. I believe there is a line between having a casual performance and respecting elements that are anticipated at a live performance. To demonstrate more on this idea, when people attend a concert which they have paid for and it is also at a well-known venue, they may have certain expectations of both the space and the artist which does not necessarily have to do anything with the formality/informality of a show, such as a decent sound system, a comfortable seating arrangement, professional staff, and more. In this case, having a more appropriate outfit would have stood in the category of which one should respect as part of their performance. 

The whole performance was an hour long. In this one hour, the artist performed on multiple instruments including the drums, guitar, bass, tambourine, along with vocals. Having these instruments placed on the stage before the start of the show created a sense of anticipation for having them played one after another and thus more eagerness for them being heard. Each piece evolved around one particular instrument with the exception of one that started with vocals and the guitar and then was carried to the drums. All these pieces were in great contrast with the one before and the one after. Having the performance start on the drums with heavy loud beats, to some extant set the expectation of the rest of the pieces and yet when he moved to his guitar and started singing that exception was completely broken. His soft voice accompanied by the acoustic guitar created a sense of relief which was rewarding after the relatively tense and suspenseful drumming. 

Interacting with the audience brought more warmth to his performance. In one of the pieces, he asked the audience to start humming while thinking of someone they had lost and do not have in their lives anymore; the humming would be stopped when he started playing the tambourine. This piece, was for sure not only emotional and sensational but also spiritual. As everyone was contributing to the music, the whole room had become one. One may have expected this piece to be the final one as it could be considered as a closing piece and a climax of a performance and yet, it was not. 

Shahzad Ismaily | Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dogs

Moreover on the idea of expectations, he also embedded unconventional and contemporary ways of performing the instruments. He would scratch on the tambourine and on the hi-hat; perhaps what one would not be anticipating. In the piece in which he moved from the guitar to the drums, the transition was not predictable; there were no build-up to the stormy atmosphere created by firstly the repetition of hi-hat and then the whole drums. 

Ismaily’s music was mainly based on improvisation. New York Times’s Ben Ratliff in the article A Trio in Its Infancy, Creating an All-New Sound, wrote about how Ismaily creates a sense of musical discovery through his free improvisation which is not a one of a jazz style. This idea was completely evident in his February 26 performance. He incorporated a great amount of repetitions which after a while would raise the question of  whether these sounds we were hearing were the same at each repetition or not. This sense of questioning and doubting what we were actually hearing led to somewhat discovery that of known and familiar sounds which one would hear form a conventional band. Furthermore, in his interview with Sergey Balashov before Ismaily’s concert with the Ceramic Dogs in Moscow on November 29, 2018, he mentions how during improvisation he takes the energy of the space he is performing in and creates a music “that is really live at that moment”. This shows that when he is performing live his music is not within a certain formal and musical structure and that he gives himself the freedom of performing based on the energy he perceives from the audience and the atmosphere itself. Perhaps having this insight is why his music not only sounded surprising at times but also created a deeper level of  connection with his audience. 

The most surprising and mostly shocking part of the concert was how he ended it. In the last piece — which I figured after that it was the last one — he was playing loud repetitive crashing sounds the drums. The lights were dimmed but his shadow could be seen slightly jumping up and down his seat, caused by the fast, powerful drum striking. “STOP” shouted a lady from the back of the audience. It was clear that the majority of the audience were confused: Was she part of the performance? Or was she simply bothered by the loud intense sounds? After a minute or two, confusions were cleared, the lights were on again and it was then that the applause started. Regardless of the insistence of the audience, there were no encores and the show had ended. 

Shahzad Ismaily improvised for an hour on five different instruments; he started his performance by requesting two not very common favors and ended the concert with a more rare action; he introduced each instrument in his own way and established a show with his own signature. Every time one attends a concert, they are able to predict certain components beforehand including how a concert starts and ends or how the artist would perform on a common instrument. However, this humble and yet notable musician challenged the human’s expectations of a live solo performance because of how he approached each instrument, how he moved from one to another, and how he wrapped up the whole concert and yet at the end he managed to create a memorable sonic and emotional experience. 

References: 

Ratliff, Ben. "A Trio in Its Infancy, Creating an All-New Sound." The New York Times. July 04, 2012. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/arts/music/darius-jones-ryan-sawyer-and-shahzad-ismaily-at-the-stone.html.

Balashov, Sergey. "Interview with Shahzad Ismaily." December 16, 2018. Accessed April 07, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5dZGOzZO4c.