Jaskirt’s musicians challenge stereotypes
Up and coming performers on the vibrant British Asian music scene are being showcased on the website of a rising young Birmingham photographer.
Jaskirt Dhaliwal features the singers and musicians on a site that also shows an impressive range of portraiture from sport and the Bearwood community in which she lives.
It includes a series of shots on women’s football for which the 24 year old won a Photo Imaging Council Award in Spring 2007, while she was still a third year media production student at Coventry University. A football landscape entitled The Rec was also selected for exhibition at UN Headquarters in New York for International Youth Day.
Jaskirt’s photographic and video exhibition of British Asian musicians was hosted in February this year at the BBC Mailbox Public Space in Birmingham and it will be shown again at the city’s Drum arts centre in July and August.
On her website Jaskirt says the musicians she selected are breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes by producing music that recognises electro, drum and bass, hip hop and rock influences.
She says there is a vast array of British Asian talent experimenting across musical genres. “Artists like Riz MC, Neeta and Audio Dakoos are making waves for their exceptional talent and the message it brings.”
Not that these artists are turning their back on their musical roots. “Most do incorporate elements of Eastern sounds in their music…and for a lot of British Asians music connects them to their cultural heritage,” says Jaskirt.
“Despite the differences in the styles of music or the message they make with it, all have these things in common, they have South Asian roots and their music is and has become a part of British Asian culture.”
Trailblazers like Nitin Sawhney who has collaborated with Sir Paul McCartney amongst others, do not appear in Jaskirt’s musicians’ gallery. The focus is on emerging artists but Jaskirt clearly believes that in due course some of those featured will command national attention.
Their cultural importance – representing and connecting with second and third generation British Asians – is “immense”, she says.
The musicians featured on this site are:
G.U.V. from Audio Dakoosa collective known for their alternative underground music which is a soundscape of funk step, basscore, jungle step, hybrid drum and breaks, Asian beats and rocktronica. |
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NeetaA multi-instrumentalist singer songwriter who has performed live from BBC’s Maida Vale for the Asian Network and has also been played on BBC 6Music. |
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Sujathi Menonis the lead singer with Satsangi, a rock band whose sound is tinged with tripped-out Eastern experimental pysch. Sujathi says: “It started when, downstairs, mother was singing classical Indian ragas, upstairs I was listening to Led Zeppelin (and) wondering what it would sound like if Kishri Amonkar sang with the B-52s….” |
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Vijay Kishoreis a singer-songwriter who Jaskirt photographed at the back of the pub where it all started for him, where he played one of his first gigs. Music paper NME said he wrote: “Brilliant, brilliant songs. Like a Brummie Jeff Buckley singing the words of Nina Simone.” |
Check out other musicians and find out more about Jaskirt Dhaliwal’s achievements on www.jaskirtdhaliwal.co.uk
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