Qais Essar

‘The Green Language’ is a musical exploration where the rabab communicates with other instruments creating a borderless language that touches the soul. With Qais Essar’s new album he guides the listener to another level of musical understanding.

It makes me think of a fusion of world music and world jazz, taking you on a journey through Asia and beyond.
It is strangely relaxing and meditative, achieving a state of transcendence. It is music you can feel and visualise. It is music for choreography, paintings and film, for the art of the heart and the soul.
The Green Language is inspirational, expressive and enlightening to listen to.

‘The Light Body; Etheric, Astral and Causal’, is an impressive musical triptych that should be listened to together, just take the time and let the music absorb you.
‘Transmutation’ reminds me of a fusion of Philip Glass, Wim Mertens and Afro Celt Soundsystem, with recognisable Afghan authenticity, while ‘Ba Mazar’ brings you directly back to Afghanistan in a beautiful melancholic way.
In ‘Saturn the Malefic’ the rabab actually starts to talk in sentences, jazzy and uplifting. All in all ‘The Green Language’ is a very diverse album where the rabab has a central role communicating with the rest of the world.

Qais Essar is one of the most talented rabab players of our time. He creates unique, sometimes experimental, compositions with traditional Afghan rabab. He shows the diversity of this classical instrument and the borderless language it speaks. He puts the rabab on the world map of music, bringing different continents together in mutual understanding via a musical language we can all understand, you only have to listen.
And this is exactly what I recommend people to do, across the globe, just listen to this new album. A true master piece I have to say. - AV Radio

Qais Essar plays the mellifluous Afghan rabab at his Gilbert home. He also writes music for the ancient, lute-like instrument and teaches others how to play it.

But most of all, Essar calls the instrument a gateway to questions about his culture.

When he plucks the rabab at concerts around the country, its soulful sounds lead to communication.


Often, people link those with roots in Afghanistan to terrorism, he said, adding that the media are partly to blame.

"My goal is not to become a teacher. It's to put out some music that evokes thought . . . who I am, where I'm from. It almost feels like a responsibility," he said. "I should not let the media dictate who I am."

"By my music, I'm able to squash all of this. It's through music that you educate people," he said.

At 25, the U.S.-born man has another equally far-reaching motive.

Even within Afghanistan, its culture is on the decline, he said. After the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, rulers have established an Islamic culture, although Afghan culture is traditionally influenced by Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, and Persian cultures, in addition to others in the region. Westernization has also contributed to the decline, he said.

Essar estimates that metropolitan Phoenix has a few thousand residents of Afghan origin. Gilbert, he thinks, has about 500.

"But you would never know," he said. "They are really well hidden."

Despite the numbers, they are not formally organized in an association, cultural or otherwise.

Essar hails from an artistic family that came to the United States in 1985, during the exodus that occurred with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Essar's family lived in Washington, D.C., a hub for Afghan immigrants. From his early days, he remembers musical evenings in the basement with members of his extended family.

His grandfather played the rabab, which was originally used to play court music about 3,000 years ago and is the national instrument.

Essar said the instrument picked him.

"This is something that really makes sense if you're Afghan. It's really weird, otherwise. The instrument itself draws us to it. When you pluck this string, just how it resonates, it'll almost resonate within us," he said.

His students, Afghan as well as non-Afghan, are located around the world, so he primarily uses Skype to teach.

"The only thing I can't do is slap their fingers when they get something wrong. Everything else, generally," he said.

He teaches Indian notation as well as Western because the rabab lends itself to musical collaboration and it would be a boon to survive in a Western world. He is a member of the Gilbert-based Pangean Orchestra, which combines native instruments from many lands.

Although the music for rabab is based on the North Indian classical system and is used for folk music, Essar interprets it differently.

He follows in the footsteps of Ustad Mohammad Omar, who introduced classical music to the instrument. But Essar also creates Western/Eastern fusion, and often borrows technique from comparable instruments so the rabab doesn't remain one-dimensional.

Essar states that he is one of a handful in the United States who plays the rabab professionally. He knows his work is important to preserve the instrument for posterity, and while he acknowledges the few others who are trying to do the same, he feels isolated in his task.

"It almost feels like ridiculous because it's one man against, you know, the world," he said. - Arizona Republic