Comments on: The mad genius of Aamir Zaki

By: tabinda rehman

tabinda rehman — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Amir zaki is a legend for Pakistan music industry. He is really a wonderful guitarist. He has to work more for our country. BEST OF LUCK.

By: A person

A person — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Aamir Zaki is not overrated, he is underheard. understand the difference.

Just like for the illiterate, ‘books’ are “overrated”.
A blind man may call colors “overrated”, but the fact that majority consists of the blind doesnt really make the statement true.

Listen to him first before calling him overrated. He plays at live concerts. he played recently at PACC in karachi. he gives guitar lessons at Beatles in PECHS karachi. go listen to him. stop exposing your ignorance.

By: farrukh hamied

farrukh hamied — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

i waz nt ur fan sir bt i had listen ur music since i waz 10 yr bt after ur biography and older music now am ur fan u r the man whch can help the upcoming bands

By: Musician's View

Musician's View — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Hello All … I have read what most of you have said which more or less is right in its own way. I will try to give my two cents from a musician’s side as I am a guitar player myself. Zaki is someone I admired when I picked up the guitar in 1992. Although I was influenced more by the US and European guitar players, Zaki and Salman Ahmad were both the guitarists that everyone talked about in the music circles in Pakistan. Salman did justice to his talent as a songwriter and guitar player with Junoon releasing a number of good albums with some solid songwriting and interesting guitar parts especially the rhythms and arrangements. They toured the world and were touted as the Sufi Rockers from Asia. Zaki on the other hand disappeared into oblivion after a decent instrumental album called Signature. His playing in it showed a lot of heart and character and the arrangements were well thought out. His ability to effortlessly play interesting phrasings showed his ability. But he has not lived up to his potential. The experiment with Hadiqa was a disaster. It was a mix of badly written songs which were poorly mixed and looked like a half baked effort. I was presonally disappointed as this was his first work after Signature and that too after a gap of like 15 years. It was shocker indeed!!! The man is known for his live playing. So for me he is more like our eastern classical maestros who do not have any studio recordings but bring the house down during live performances. I think Amir Zaki should start recording his live performances and release a live album. Releasing material that he did 10 or 15 years ago would not make sense as it would not be him at this current phase in time. I would like to listen to him the way he is currently playing. I don’t want an album in which 80 % of the tracks were recorded years ago. It will fail to capture my interest. In the end, I would like to say that he is a very good musician but calling him a genius is a bit over the edge. Our media has a habit of over-hyping certain individuals and ignoring some really talented ones but thats what happens everywhere else in the world as well. I wish him the best of luck and hope to hear some good stuff from his side soon. I have also heard that he is physically not well and was also admitted to the hospital recently.

By: Dawood

Dawood — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Can’t understand what the article really want to say. Zaki’s been a ghost as far Pakistan’s music industry is concerned. Always overhyped and overrated, the man’s done NOTHING apart from creating just one midiocre pop-rock album.
There are guitarists and musicians out there who are 10 times more productive and talented than this guy.
And this “genius,” tag, oh, please, have some respect for the words you use at least.

By: Salim Sinai

Salim Sinai — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Totally agree with the above post. Have been following Zaki’s ascent since the early 90s. All the hype preceding his solo album fizzled within 10 minutes of listening to Signature. Mera Pyar only got to be a hit for frankly the pop scene in pakistan was young and there was nothing much to compete with. Amir Zaki may be a gifted guitar player but there just isnt enough of his output widely available to make me a convert.
I expected the article to fawn over Zaki’s “genuis”, which it does to an extent, though also fleshes him out to be human. Whatever I have heard of his so far is technically proficient yet sterile, unfeeling, worse- banal. Amir Zaki is in a word overrated.

By: Adnan Farooqui

Adnan Farooqui — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I have always been a huge fan of him, he is one phenomenal guitarist

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I first met Aamir in 1990, when I went to this musical instrucments shop to buy my first, and to this date, the only electric guitar. First time I saw he perform it was an out-of-this-world experience. But yeah even back then he mostly talked negative about most of the music going on in Pakistan at that time (early 90’s). I have known another eccentric deserving a similar article Adnan, who used to be a big Satriani/Vai fan and could reproduce their solos till the last note. Same story I guess. It is very sad that such a genius (referring to Amir Zaki now) ended up this way. But being genius is no excuse to let your life go in this direction.

By: Morbid Isolation

Morbid Isolation — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

He’s undoubtedly a great musician, albiet vocally I find him lacking but that’s alright because a musician doesn’t necessarily have to be a good singer. His prowess with the guitar is legendary and he has a good ear for music. Sadly, Amir Zaki is a typical musical conundrum…he IS a genius who believes in his music but not himself. His history shows the bohemian artist rhetoric finding a place in a commerical industry. Rock musicians in Pakistan have had to reiterate their philosophy in order to survive in a POP dominant music culture.

Its a shame that Pakistani’s do not understand the beauty of music and the imperative need for diversity and variety. Making a quick buck leads to musicians abandoning their musical ideologies, Amir Zaki has been back and forth from inner conflicts on whether to adhere to his musical philosophy or sell out to the POP mongers in Pakistan’s musically illiterate society.

If Pakistan had a thriving film industry, there is no doubt that Amir Zaki would be the first choice for producing music for films i.e. scores, themes and soundtracks. We have a knack of ignoring our very own artists and idolizing indian movie songs which 7 times out of 10 are abhorrent musical catastrophies.

By: A bit confused

A bit confused — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Is it okay to publish contents of a private email in an article. Even if the email was written to the writer, the information was shared off the record and perhaps with some degree of confidentiality.