Saif Samejo (born 23 January 1984) is a musician and founder, lead vocalist and songwriter of the Pakistani

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

folk band

The Sketches The Sketches () is a Sufi folk rock band from Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan, created by young musician Saif Samejo. "Sindhi melody is very charming; there is enormous flexibility of words" says Saif Samejo. Their motherland has always been a major ...

. In May 2014 he opened the first music Aashram (School) in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, Sindh named as "Lahooti Music Aashram". He composed music for Dastan-e ''

Momal Rano Momal Rano or (In Sindhi: مومل راڻو) is a romantic tale of Momal and Rano from the Sindhi folklore and Rajasthani folklore. It is a multifaceted story that entails adventure, magic, schemes, beauty, love, ordeals of separation, and above ...

'' on the show ''Coke Studio''.

Early life and education

Saif Samejo was born on January 23, 1984, in Khairpur, Sindh in a Sindhi

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family. He studied

bachelors A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

at the

University of Sindh The University of Sindh (; ; informally known as Sindh University) is a public research university in Pakistan located in the city of Jamshoro in the Sindh province. It is one of the oldest universities in Pakistan and was certified by ISO in 2 ...

Music career

With a consistency The Sketches climbed up the ladder of success in not just parts of Sindh but the entire Pakistan with popular hits including "Nind Nashe Vich", "Rano", "Raat", "Main Sufi Hoon", and "

Meena Meena () is a tribe from northern and western India which is sometimes considered a sub-group of the Bhil community. It used to be claimed they speak Mina language, a Spurious languages, spurious language. Its name is also transliterated as ' ...

". Recently a new music album ''YOU ()'' and a new song ''Jogi'' was launched. Saif collaborated with

Mai Dhai Mai Dhai (born 1 January 1919; ) is a Pakistani classical singer hailing from Tharparkar, Sindh. She formed a folk-band called Mai Dhai Band composed of Jamal Shab, a harmonium player and dhol player, Muhammad Fakir. Mai and her band has perform ...

to present the original

Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...

flavor of music besides this he also intended to collaborate with other artist through Lahooti Music Ashram.

Lahooti Live Sessions

Lahooti Live Sessions launched by Saif Samejo in June 2013, is a weekly activity where different musicians from Sindh gather at Samejo's place to play live music. The audio and video of the performances is recorded and released on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. Samejo himself is the front man of the Jamshoro-based rock band The Sketches, and the Lahooti Sessions are in the vein of something that he has wanted to do for a long time; cultural preservation in its most unadulterated form. Lahooti live sessions appears as a dream come true for him. ''"The aim was not only to record these musicians, but to do so in the highest possible audio-visual quality so that they can be presented in an equally good manner on social media,"'' Samejo adds. Around 50 different

folk musicians Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

have been recorded and released as part of the Lahooti live sessions and most of them have never been exposed to the camera or the recording equipment before. Some prominent names include

, Zulfiqar Fakir, ''Arieb Azhar'', band Bell, two Changg players from

Thatta Thatta is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Thatta was the medieval capital of Sindh, and served as the seat of power for three successive dynasties. Its construction was ordered by Jam Nizamuddin II in 1495. Thatta's historic signif ...

– Ali Mohammad and Feroz Roonjho, Manjhi Faqeer, Talib Talari, Mai Hanjoo and Mohammad Hassan.

Lahooti Music Aashram

The Lahooti School of music is an extension of the Lahooti Live Sessions that Saif started a year before, with the intent of preserving indigenous instruments and instrumentalists. Lahooti music school named as Lahooti Music Aashram is the first proper music school in Hyderabad/Jamshoro inaugurated in May 2014. The school offers a thirty-six-hour learning module in keyboards, guitars, bass guitars and drums amongst western instruments and chung, ''boreendo'', ''

shehnai The ''shehnai'' is a type of oboe from the Indian subcontinent. It is made of wood, with a double reed at one end and a metal or wooden flared bell at the other end. It was one of the nine instruments found in the royal court. The shehnai is sim ...

'', danbooro, sarangi, narr, sitar,

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

dholak The ''dholak'' is a two-headed hand drum, a folk percussion instrument. The dholak is most commonly recognised in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, but can also be found amongst the Indo-Diaspora in countries s ...

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

, along with other percussion instruments closer to home. Later on the students who show interest in the field of music production will also be provided with studio facilities to harness their skills.

Discography

Albums

* ''Dastkari'' (2009) *''You'' (2016) *''Saanjhi'' (2019)

Music videos and singles

Coke Studio

season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album), 2014 * ''2econd Season'', an album ...

: "Mandh Waai" * season 11: Dastaan-e-Moomal Rano

References

External links

Saif Samejo on Spotify
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samejo, Saif Pakistani male singers Sindhi people Sindhi-language singers Singers from Sindh University of Sindh alumni The Sketches 1984 births Living people