The Jazzperiment Performance by Imran Ahmed Quintet

The audience had only barely finished arriving at the venue before the tickets for the show had sold out. Such was the case for Imran Ahmed Quintet's show at EMK Center in Dhaka on March 28. The Quintet consisted of Imran Ahmed on guitars, Rahin Haider on the saxophone, Apurba Mustafa on trombone, Mohaimin Karim on bass, and Towfiq Arifin Turjo playing the drums.

Soon after the audience had finished settling into their seats, Imran Ahmed took the stage to perform a short improv piece. Once he had gotten the crowd hyped, he called up his group mates to the stage to perform their first crowd favourite "Splash." The song had essentially started with a slow build, with insert of the trombone and saxophone at calculated times that worked brilliantly. The song to follow was dubbed by the group as "Lights", and it helped the crowd to get familiarised with the experimental sound of the group. Once the song ended, Apurbo Mustafa explained the formation of the Quintet. 

The third original song "Five Oceans Belief" was another crowd favourite or at least the favourite of yours truly. "I find rhythm really fancy. And I love playing uneven and complex rhythmic patterns. So I enjoy spending time analysing rhythm and thinking about how to go deeper into that rhythm. What I, or just about any other musician listens to, reflects a lot upon what they create. I personally listen to a lot of jazz and Indian classical music. So I ended up using chords and some harmonic concepts that provide that jazzy feeling. And being focused within a span of a specific time signature is considered an ornament in Indian Classical Music – both in the north and the south," Imran Ahmed said about his influences and inspiration regarding the compositions. 

The only cover the group featured was a song from the Mahavishnu Orchestra; then followed another original composition by the group, "Please Turn Over to 35". They tried to end the show with their final composition, "City." However, despite the time crunch, the crowd – that was spilled over the floors and the back of the room – were far from satisfied and demanded an encore. The group complied, and played "Splash" once more before closing the show.  

The show's success is a good sign for experimental musicians, and experimenting creative artists, in general. If you're trying to bring something new to the table, the audiences are willing to listen. Here's to such shows becoming more frequent in the future.