A South Asian Fusion Musical Project

American Ghazal is the concept of New York vocalist/percussionist/lyricist and composer Paula Jeanine. Using traditional South Asian musical forms of ghazal, thumri and raga, Ms. Jeanine is writing and performing material with a modern sound from an ancient source.

Ghazal is a type of poetry and song that has had an elemental place from the Tigris to the Ganges since its inception in 13th century Persia. Traditional themes include love, longing and intoxication, although ghazal is mostly about ideas: symbolic, mystic and philosophical. In the American Ghazal project, Paula Jeanine mixes the classic with the maverick, the urban with the sublime, resulting in a twenty-first century fusion of global forms.

The American Ghazal repertoire is twofold: original compositions written by Ms. Jeanine that are informed by her jazz and raga background, as well as adaptations of classic South Asian songs. Many of the latter have been recorded by legends such as Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hassan and Begum Akhtar.

Writing new lyrics to these melodies (as opposed to translations) has allowed Ms. Jeanine to get inside the music in a new way. Much as the painter Francis Bacon adapted images of Velazquez or Picasso mixed African art influcences into his vision, Ms. Jeanine has adapted the mood and contour of great existing works and brought them west, into the 21st century.

Her lyric style is inspired by both east (the poetry of ghazal masters from Ghalib to Muzaffir Ali) and west (the work of Neruda, Rilke and Snyder).

Paula Jeanine has trained with master vocal teacher and raga and thumri singer Dhanashree Pandit-Rai in Mumbai, India. She was a guest of the Jazz-India Vocal Institute and received an artistic sponsorship from Air India. Paula Jeanine has also studied Indian classical voice with bansuri master Steve Gorn and has taken private voice training with Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan from Calcutta. While in Mumbai, Ms. Jeanine did her first American Ghazal recordings with Louis Banks, India's premier keyboardist. She now studies North Indian classical voice traditions in NYC with Ghulam Mohamedd Khan of Rajasthan.

Currently, American Ghazal is flexible in size and can be presented as large as a sextet and as small as a trio, depending on the venue. Frequent collaborators include Jerome Harris (bass) of Sonny Rollins and Jack DeJohnette fame, Richard Bennett (piano), Lee Boice (guitar/sitar) and Shane Shanahan (percussion) from Yo Yo Ma's "Silk Road Project". Well received performances at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Joe's Pub, Club Europa, Tea Lounge, and the Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition have helped the band develop its unique character.

Since Autumn 2005, Paula Jeanine has been recording with Sarangi master, Pandit Ramesh Mishra, extending her artistry to include the ancient beauty of this rarefied string instrument, the "sound of 100 colors".

Ms. Jeanine's "silk and fire" approach to the songs moves audiences everywhere. She is an explorer in the terrain of emotions, presented with vulnerability and courage.