Najma Akhtar

Artist Description

Since Najma Akhtar's 1987 release "Qareeb", which was universally acclaimed as a groundbreaking recording in World Music, Najma has released five additional solo recordings, all to the same critical acclaim and always reaching for new boundaries. Najma has collaborated and performed with musicians the likes of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Jah Wobble, Andy Summers, Steve Coleman, and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), to name a few. Robert Plant had this to say about Najma, "Najma Akhtar, who sang with us on the film (MTV Unplugged and the album, "No Quarter") practices with this box which gives her like three notes in a different raga, and she just wails between these notes. I've spent time with her when she is just wandering around and this box is giving out these amazing tones. It's trippy like you've got the incense on, a picture of Leonard Cohen on the wall, her singing.". Billboard has described Najma's music as "a musical and cultural fusion of the first order". Ian Anderson said, "Najma Akhtar is the premier lady Indian (Asian) singer on the planet."