Nearly a century ago, pearl diver Hamad Ben Hussain, could often be found on the docks in his native Kuwait, preparing for yet another voyage across the Indian Ocean.
Though preparations were extensive, they followed a familiar pattern. The appropriate dhow was chosen to suit the season, and all essential equipment – sails, ropes, and anchors – were carefully inspected and loaded on board. Provisions to last up to four months, including durable foods like dates, fish and rice, were stored alongside water barrels placed in shaded areas to keep them cool in the intense heat.
Then there was the sound check, with musicians inspecting voices and instruments. They played an integral role on these expeditions, with songs and chants of spirituality and resilience boosting crew morale during the arduous journeys. Some of the most valued crew members on each dhow were thought to be the nahham (lead singer) and tabbal (drummer).
Hamad Ben Hussain was not only one of the most skilled tabbals in the art of Khaleeji sea music, but he is also credited with introducing the barrel drum – an essential instrument in Khaleeji pearl diving music – after a voyage to India at the turn of the century.
Eighty years later and three generations on, his great-grandson and namesake is now carrying on this journey to new territories with jazz group Boom.Diwan. This time, it’s in Manchester, England, where he joins an ensemble of fellow Kuwaiti musicians as part of the group to perform reimagined versions of these traditional songs alongside American-Mexican pianist Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. The event in question is the annual music industry conference Womex, which ended on Sunday, and echoes some of the trade voyages undertaken by his forebears all those years ago.
Speaking to The National during sound check ahead of Friday’s show at Aviva Studios, band founder member Ben Hussain is keenly aware he is part of greater history. “Sound check with a band is similar to preparing a ship for a journey,” he says. “Every performance we are ready because what we are doing is really more than entertainment. We are transmitting our culture and heritage from Kuwait and the Gulf to a new audience. It does feel special and, personally, very important.”
The brainchild of the gig is Boom.Diwan leader Ghazi Al Mulaifi, a Kuwaiti musician and musicologist at NYU Abu Dhabi. The collaboration with Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra also comes on the back of their 2022 concert at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre, resulting in the song collaboration Ana Mashoof, featured in O’Farrill’s Grammy-nominated album Virtual Birdland released that year.
With the concept tentatively tested internationally with three sold out intimate gigs at New York’s Joe’s Pub in March, Al Mulaifi explains the Womex showcase in front of international booking agents and record labels is a sign the project is ready to bear full fruits.
“We’ve spent the good part of seven years crafting this band, and now it’s in a place where we feel like we are truly ready to share it with the world,” he says. “For us to have all the premier promoters from around the world come and see us feels like a coming-out party for us.”
The years spent refining the concept have resulted in the well-received Womex gig. It showcased bold and rich sound blending Khaleeji maqams, polyrhythmic clapping, and percussion with rich Latin music styles from Cuba's danzon – known for its elongated tempo – and the vibrant syncopated rhythms of Puerto Rico's bomba.
Some of that approach is heard in Muneera, the lead single of the upcoming Ghazi and Boom.Diwan with Arturo O'Farrill album Live in the Khaleej, out in January and co-commissioned by the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre.
It is a project that initially took Ben Hussain some time to warm up to. “I was initially wary of the whole concept of the band because I didn't know how we could bring those two worlds together and I didn't want to dilute this rich tradition which I personally come from and grew up in,” he says. “But with Ghazi's guidance and deep appreciation for the music also, I realised that the music we are doing together is actually elevating the art form and not taking away. It's a bigger sound with lots of heart.”
While academically trained as an ethnomusicologist, Al Mulaifi says Boom.Diwan also holds personal appeal, with his grandfather formerly a ‘noukhada’ – a ship captain in Kuwait of pearl diving ships.
“He was rare in that there were not many who both owned and captained their ships,” he notes. “And what triggered me to dig deep into that history is when I was 13 years old and saw an old photo of my grandfather wearing a wizar (a hip cloth wrap worn by men at home and sea), and he explained it was a piece of traditional clothing worn by men at sea and that he was a ship master. But when I delved more into that topic he shut down and just said ‘all the men died at sea’.”
Al Mulaifi's research, which shaped the academic course Engaging Khaleeji Musical Heritage formerly taught at NYU Abu Dhabi, led him to explore the social, spiritual, and cosmopolitan dimensions of Kuwaiti pearl diving music.
Boom.Diwan became the ideal vehicle to explore that heritage, whether it’s through traditional jam sessions in music salons in Kuwait to a residency at Rosewood Abu Dhabi which Al Mulaifi playfully describes as “jazz diwan”.
He also found a kindred musical spirit in Mexican-American composer and band leader Arturo O’Farrill, whose four-decade career is dedicated to exploring and recording African music’s influences in jazz music. It was a journey that took him to Kuwait in 2019 to witness a jam session of pearl diving music performed by Al Mulaifi, Ben Hussain and fellow players from pearl diving families.
“It felt like I was meant to be there. I have always been curious about the roots of Afro-Cuban music, and there are elements of northern Africa, Spain and the Middle East in that,” he says. “And as part of that trail, I hear how a lot of the South Asian instruments made their way into the Middle East, which is found in the oud and Andalusian music in Spain. So when I or my band hears the music that Boom.Diwan is playing, it feels familiar. It has rhythms that we know and put our names to in Latin America hundreds of years later. It made us recognise that the fundamental rhythms of music come from this part of the world.”
By merging both musical worlds together, O’Farrill says they are creating a “futuristic” kind of sound with a humanitarian message at its core.
“It’s the music where we recognise the world yet to be because we’re embracing the Middle East, Spain, Africa, and the indigenous worlds of India and South Asia. This music is a lesson on where the world should be going,” he says. “Isolationism won’t last and it can kill the planet. The music is a way to show people that we need to reconnect together and be prepared to fight the challenges facing the world as a family. It is a form of healing.”
Al Mulaifi and Ben Hussain prefer to look at it in, perhaps, less grander terms. They are merely continuing the journey their forebears began long ago on the coasts of Kuwait.
“The music has always been hybrid and cosmopolitan,” Al Mulaifi says. “Some of the changes are involuntary because each pearl diving season required some sailors to spend months in a new location before they returned because of the monsoon winds. So, through these sustained engagements, you have music that is always fluid in expression and experimentation. We are keeping that tradition alive.”
