Arooj Aftab

My most detailed peek into touring band finances was a band some friends were in that used to tour Europe playing mostly small theaters. 8 piece band in a bus plus a sound person, driver, and merch person. Pre-pandemic they would come home with some money, let's say $5 - 15k per person depending on the length of the tour. Not great money at all if you're trying to live on it, and can't take a a full-time job so you can tour a few months out of the year. But definitely not losing tens of thousands of dollars.

I'm sure things are worse now in terms of missed shows due to travel snafus and COVID, lower turn-out and sales, etc. But I'd love to know how much worse, ie does that explain everything or are there additional factors in Aftab's situation.

I see she's booked to come back to the Washington DC area in April 2023 on a bill with Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily all together in a collaborative project called Love in Exile at the fancy suburban Strathmore Music Center in Maryland that I think holds 2,200 people. $23 to $68. Not sure they will fill the place, but maybe she gets a sizable guarantee?

recent conversation i had with two booking agents suggested that Europe for jazz/"world" is good guaranteed money, US is not.

Lots of venues take a percentage of merch sales too

this is insane? does that go for both US/EU?

xxpost To have an idea of what you might be for with Love In Exile, scroll up to where I posted the link to their streaming concert: click on that, then click on the Vimeo you'll see, as I just now did: seems fine, although I didn't try to play the whole thing. Mainly because, as I said in my comments then (May, 2021), I sometimes got frustrated by the knottier, lengthier piano traffic patterns, despite the excellent vocals and bass---piano was effective at times as well, but judging by posts about recent shows, seems like she still gives her colleagues a lot of space---and Vijay is my least favorite of the people she's performed with (although he's always been an effective anchor-to-axis-and-back for Burnt Sugar). But she's mentioned a Love In Exile album that was finished a while back, and I would like to hear it---for one thing, maybe studio budgeting etc. would rein him in.

Time to spill the beans … https://t.co/a1OrLh39Gg

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) November 18, 2022

Definitely looking forward to that at Big Ears.

looking forward to hearing that

Been checking out Love in Exile video online from the last few years via NYC shows and a DC one at the Phillips Collection art museum. Improvised and a bit more melancholy. Definitely rewarding

Oh, some of the Love in Exile stuff is mentioned upthread. They first did it in 2018 and have done it on and off over the years.

Has the Love in Exile album been delayed? It's March in like 10 days but no preorder, no tracklisting, no info since that tweet back in November.

https://f-cat.de/en/artist/love-in-exile

This says spring 2023. Aftab's manager told me during a zoom interview I did with her a few weeks ago, that the first single from it would be out February 23 and that the album would be out March 23

^ Ooh, thanks, I'm glad it's not pushed back! She has just confirmed the single on Twitter BTW:

FIRST SINGLE of the new project is out tomorrowwwww TOMORROWWW

— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) February 22, 2023

tomorrow... but that's... today!!

yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z0w7U6yw0c
Arooj Aftab ft. Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily • To Remain/To Return

(there's also a 3'19 edit)

has anyone listened to this all?
I think it’s a beautiful piece, if perhaps less ‘dramatic’ than the Vulture Prince material

Yes, I really enjoyed it, but will wait for the full album before listening again.

ha, I was going to post the exact same thing

Working w/ Vijay Iyer & S. Azmaily rather than Vulture Prince musicians I think is going to sound a bit different (although some of Aftab vocal melodies may seem consistent). Upthread and on Youtube are some live Love in Exile shows from NY & DC that the album will likely resemble.

Gonna be including the album in my Stereogum column for March even though it's pretty far from "jazz." Really beautiful, though.

Looks like the album is not going to include the magnificent piece they did for the Resonant Bodies comp (is that how they got they her?)

https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/resonant-bodies?t=6 if you missed it

* is that how they got together?

Iyer I read often invites people to perform with him and he invited Aftab to play onstage with him. Then he invited Aftab and Ismaily to do so, and after they all played together once , Ismaily was so so wowed he asked the other two to keep playing together as a trio

album is out (have yet to listen)

keep waiting for the album to begin, riyl sleepy ECM

Yeah it's more an ECM album with Arooj than an Arooj Aftab album. I also found the beginning to be too quiet, but now I'm enjoying the dialogue between piano and double bass and the tranquil warmth (Shadow Forces - Sajni), the slightly darker Eyes of the Endless. I think there's enough tension and beauty to hook me.

I have precisely zero problems with sleepy ECM plus Arooj.

It's not sleepy, exactly — it's just a slow build. And you really need to listen to the whole thing front to back; you can't really pluck one track out (though I did, obviously, when covering it for Stereogum).

Nate Chinen interviews Love In Exile:

On this special episode of All Songs Considered, Iyer, Aftab and Ismaily sat down in the Brooklyn recording studio Ismaily owns for for an in-depth conversation that touches on the origins of the trio, which they say felt instantly charged with spiritual energies. They also dicussed the implications of the name "Love in Exile," with its play of diaspora and longing; the mysterious way that a song form can emerge out of group improv and "ritual time" as an expression of tempo ungoverned by genre or market concerns.

Saw the Love in Exile trio Friday night . I enjoyed the ethereal soundscapes they did. It's a Vijay Iyer led project. Aftab sounded great when she sang. But she looked a little stressed. Early in the show she noted that she had monitor issues, and then later she didn't talk in between songs much -- a couple of comments about wanting more wine to drink onstage.(that first sounded like a joke or sarcasm, but after second comment about it , she seemed annoyed with the theatre for real).

I saw that a couple of dates from the Love In Exile tour have turned up on Dime. Not listened to the sets yet. Have enjoyed teh couple of tracks I've heard by her and did see she got an article in one of teh UK monthlies last moth that I've been too busy to read so far. Hopefully get to that over next few days.

Lot of good stuff on her Bandcamp. I'd take all that over the live Love in Exile performance linked upthread (because Vijay's long-ass ruminations), but haven't yet heard the album or tour bits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6QNNxCf-3s

New Aftab, Iyer, Ismaily on NPR Tiny Desk (there's also an older Tiny Desk with Aftab with her own band)

Is it just me or is this lovely new single giving Sade vibes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5IOeXg1jJY

Yep, trailer for this sure does

directed by Tessa Thompson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLE-B7_bSSw

this is the single and yeah it is very much giving sade vibes, i love it

gorgeous song and video

New album Night Reign coming May 31. Moor Mother guests on a track

Contender for SOTY (so far) IMO

US tour....in 2025, it looks like

Such a beautiful song

Contender for SOTY (so far) IMO

― Tim F, Friday, April 19, 2024 6:29 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

absolutely, my goodness

I'm not so sure it works in isolation as a single, but I am sure it will in the context of the album. I like the instrumental development in the middle, the vocal effects are a bit much but still gorgeous.

Agree, sounds like an album cut to me. Very hyped for this!

reminds me a bit of Sade's "Immigrant"

new song is lovely and mesmerizing as usual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QwMt4tflD8

Wow.

“I think I’m ready to give into your beauty and let you fall in love with me”

This album looks set to be the best “X goes mainstream” heel turn ever

gorgeous!

This is undeniable. Beautiful.

Wow, she's following on Mohabbat and taking the progressive folk / singer-songwriter direction. I love the way she's been evolving her sound. This feels less minimalist and more orchestrated.