Ustad Noor Bakhsh and Ramon Chicharron at the Cedar Cultural Center (9-24-2024)

We Heart Music got the chance to check out the middle night of the Cedar Cultural Center’s three-night Global Roots Festival, a free event featuring musicians from all over the world.

The first act was a rare one as Ustad Noor Bakhsh has embarked on a North American tour at an age when most are retiring. He is from Pakistan, born in the coastal town of Gaddani to a nomadic family of shepherds. But when he first heard the benju, he knew immediately he wanted to learn everything about it.

The benju can best be described as a slide guitar with typewriter keys. It almost looks like a tenor saxophone if you tried to flatten it into a traveling piano. It has the plucky, metallic sound of a zither, but the keys allow Bakhsh to flutter up and down the instrument, improvising and conveying his own distinct voice.

Bakhsh was joined on stage by Daniyal Ahmed who played damburag, a long-necked lute. Ahmed was also the translator, road manager and is also a professor of anthropology at Habib University in Karachi. Sadly, their flute player had an accident early in the day and was resting back at the hotel. But Bakhsh’s intricate, nimble finger play of South Asian Ragas and traditional Pakistani Balochi music kept the audience transfixed.

After a brief intermission, Ramon Chicharron and his band took the stage to get the crowd moving.

Chicharron is from Columbia but currently residing in Montreal. His style of music is described as Columbian tropical pop fusion featuring dance styles like Cumbia, Champeta and Dembow.

Although far from his coastal home, Chicharron has found a welcoming home in Canada. His albums have been well received, winning twice “Album of the Year” for 2021- Pescador de sueños and 2022 – Destello de estrellas at the Latin Canada Awards. He just released Niebla on September 13th, and he featured songs about walks through Canadian woods, the contemplative life of Columbian fishermen who only harvest what they need for the day and reflecting on a time before smartphones when stars were used to help guide travelers.

But what drove the evening was the beat of the drums, the guitar, the keys and Chicharron’s rapid-fire delivery. It was difficult not to move around even if most didn’t know the dance steps.

I was surprised to see a section of the audience with notebooks. They looked like U of M students, jotting furiously as if they were in some music theory class. Perhaps, they were. But they should remember the most important part of music: it’s fun. Or as Ustad Noor Bakhsh explained in a 2023 interview with The Guardian: “When I play the benju, I’m still young.”