Arooj Aftab isn’t your typical rock star. The Pakistani-raised, Berklee-trained musician crafts hushed jazz compositions, singing mostly in Urdu while accompanied by flute, harp, and classical guitar. In a recent rare North American appearance at Union Stage, Arooj Aftab commanded the stage with her impeccable musicianship and sarcastic, quietly profound personality.
Although Arooj first began singing and composing music as a teenager, she burst onto the global stage with 2021’s Vulture Prince, a record which debuted a unique sound melding lush jazzy soundscapes with Sufi poetry. She has since become a regular at the Grammys (“It’s only fun to be a Grammy nominee until the day of the awards, when you become a loser,” she joked with the crowd in DC), and shared the stage with collaborators like Vijay Iyer, Khruangbin, and Japanese Breakfast. She possesses the confidence of a consummate musician’s musician, capable of upstaging the likes of Laurie Anderson, Boygenius, and Madonna. Seeing her in a room holding just a few dozen people on March 27 was nothing less than a privilege for her DC fans at Union Stage.
Arooj’s latest album, last year’s Night Reign, extends her moody musical vision with songs about the endless possibilities of life after dark. The album includes arrangements of lyrics by Rumi and 18th century poet Mah Laqa Bai Chanda, as well as Arooj’s original compositions in both English and Urdu. It features collaborations with musicians like Cautious Clay and Moor Mother, and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Jazz Album.
Whether in short, impressionistic bouts or lengthy musical journeys, these songs are rich and complex compositions best heard live. On tour with a four-piece band including Perry Smith on guitar, Domenica Fossati on flute, Zwelake-duma Bell le Pere on upright bass, and Engin Kaan Gunaydin on drums, Arooj’s songs filled the room in a way that commanded attention. From the tender love song “Whiskey” (“your head gets heavy and rests on your shoulder/ because you drink too much whiskey when you’re with me”) to the prowling bluesy slowburn of “Bolo Na” and the sexy Rnb slowjam “Raat Ki Rani,” Arooj’s set in DC demonstrated the impressive range of her latest album.
Watch the official music video for “Whiskey” by Arooj Aftab on YouTube:
Of course, the central attraction of the show was Arooj’s ethereal voice. Even recovering from bronchitis, her singing has a delicate and transcendent quality which is impossible to ignore. Whether steeped in reverb or unadorned, her voice folded every word in tender caresses and powerful vibrato which brought an immediate stillness to the room. Whether the band was summoning tense grooves or simmering hooks, Arooj’s voice always seemed to occupy another plane of angelic bliss.
While I went to the show expecting Arooj’s virtuosic voice to blow me away, I was not expecting her to affect such effortless cool on stage. She carried herself with quiet confidence and frequently cracked jokes between songs. Night Reign, she explained to the audience towards the beginning of the show, “is about love and how we all suck at it.” She introduced the sexy simmer of “Raat Ki Rani” by explaining that the song was about “when you lock eyes with someone across the room at a party, and you’re entranced and everything else stops. You leave the party right away and go home… to your partner.” The jokes provided moments of levity, cutting the tension and bringing the audience deeper into the mesmerizing world of her songs.
Arooj plays the rockstar part with evident ease, toying with the delicate tension of her own (un)knowability. As a Pakistani musician regularly singing Urdu poetry for Western crowds, she seems to enjoy the subtle power of remaining incomprehensible to much of her audience. On stage in DC wearing all black and dark sunglasses, bathed in red light, she was both on display for all and securely obscured from direct observation. “People think I’m doing sacred Sufi stuff up here,” she noted wryly, “but it’s more of just a vibe.” When some in the audience expressed concern about her recovery from bronchitis, she seemed to regret divulging her sickness, saying “I don’t want you to think about me singing while I’m singing.”
Whereas most rockstars close out with a dramatic flourish, Arooj left us with something soft and sweet. The DC set ended with Vulture Prince single “Mohabbat,” a long and tender song with a soothing lullaby melody. Arooj led the crowd in singing several rounds of the chorus (“Mohabbat” means love or romance) as Smith gently strummed away. As the last notes of the song trailed off, an awed hush filled the room.
