Atif Aslam gives tribute to Farhad Humayun on his birthday
Farhad was well renowned for being hospitable and believing that a great artist might come from anywhere. With songs like "Jeet," "Lahore," and the cover of "Neray Aah" from Syed Noor's well-known movie "Chooriyaan," Farhad brought back both traditional and modern street music as a mainstay of the business. In the shape of his band Overload, he worked with the renowned dhool maestro Papu Sain, clarinetist Ustad Jaffar, and other musicians. He had also worked with Hossam Ramzy and Aziz-Ur-Rahman Ibrahim, two British musicians, on the monumental song "Give In" and "Main Hoon," respectively.
One of the top drummers in the world, Salman Albert, is well-known for his collaborations with Farhad Humayun, particularly on musical projects like Levi's Live. Throughout the Lahore underground phase, the two got along well. We had a good rapport because of our shared sense of humor, according to Albert.
After seeing him play at the "Peace Concert" held at St. Anthony's High School, I learned about this. So I got in touch with Farhad to perform with him through his friend, keyboardist, musician, and composer Sheraz Siddiq. I had never before offered to perform for anyone. Typically, it goes the other way. Soon soon, I was thoroughly enjoying playing with him. His sense of humor was one of his most remarkable traits.
He made up his own jokes, and despite his sense of humor, he had never damaged anyone. We were essentially a family. He managed to keep everyone connected to him in this way. I consider myself fortunate and grateful to have shared his final years with him. We were like good musical friends for approximately 25 years, but in the last seven years, we became more like brothers.
Farhad's love of music extended beyond only playing it. He is renowned for standing out for the legal rights of musicians. His mother, Navid Shahzad, an actress and media personality, has spoken out and raised the alarm on this issue on numerous times.
As the Pakistani music scene has yet to equal the passion, tone, and expertise exhibited by his band Overload, the last is a genre that Fadi created exclusively for himself, she said.
Fadi could have stopped there, branding the hybrid form with his own distinctive mark, but being the visionary and shape-shifter that he was, he decided to take on an even more challenging task. Farhad bravely confronted the corporate sector to ensure that copyright laws pertaining to music production were upheld, reenacting what might be compared to a David and Goliath battle, even if it meant going up against institutions and people who had enormous financial clout in terms of their global presence, she continued.
Farhad became the only musician to file a copyright law lawsuit against both international music platforms and film producers, fighting for the musician's right to own his own material in all forums. According to him, it wasn't a policy he adopted just for himself; rather, it was unmistakably meant to defend the rights of all voiceless practitioners who had been intimidated into silence by fictitious promises of payment or by their own unwillingness to take a chance on opposing powerful media promoters, according to Navid Shahzad.
The Farhad Humayun Foundation, which his family created after Farhad passed away, is a nonprofit that fully embraces the late artist's conviction that life lessons can be learnt through music and can be enhanced by the arts.
Farhad Bokahri is described by his sister Rima Bokahri as "a shape-shifter, disruptor, magnificent dreamer, and musical daredevil who blazes a visionary path, championing artistic, social, and cultural independence, and celebrating differences as a way to generate powerful solidarity".
Because of Farhad's complexity as a musician, songwriter, performer, showman, sound engineer, producer, director of photography and video, artist, businessman, and silent philanthropist, any analysis of his work and, by extension, the Foundation's undertakings, must be interdisciplinary.
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