This episode was originally planned for release on the same day as the 64th Grammy’s Awards, which for the second year in a row, had to be postponed due to the ongoing pandemic. But the reason I wanted to mark the occasion was to spotlight one Grammy nominee in particular: Arooj Aftab, who is now doing a victory lap after her critically hailed third album Vulture Prince not only earned her two nominations, but placement on every coveted year end best-of list, and even a song on President Obama’s Summer Playlist of 2021. One of the Grammy’s Arooj is nominated for is one of the big ones: Best New Artist, an accolade she now shares with her old Berklee College of Music friend (and Mixtape Memoir alum) Esperanza Spalding.

While both studied jazz at Berklee, Arooj would go on to capture the hearts and imaginations of music fans with songs inspired by an ancient form of Islamic poetry, sung mostly in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan where she is from. While Urdu may be a foreign language to some, it is the tenth most widely spoken language in the world. But music, as we know, is the universal language, and among many gifts that Arooj Aftab has, is the ability to create what she calls “music that transcends words”.

We’ll hear how Arooj journeyed from her birthplace of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, surrounded by pop music, animals, and sci-fi games with her brothers, to Lahore, Pakistan where her parents were from Her teenage discovery of jazz, folk music, and the guitar, which she taught herself, all leading to her laser-focused determination, no matter the cost, to come to the States to study jazz, composition and engineering at Berklee. After Berklee, Arooj moved to New York City where she is now based, and began scoring and editing films. Her first album, Bird Under Water, was independently released in 2014, followed by her critically hailed electronic album Siren Islands in 2018 on New Amsterdam Records, who also released her triumphant latest work, Vulture Prince, in 2021.

As we produced this episode, news came that Arooj has now been signed by the legendary jazz label, Verve Records, who will reissue Vulture Prince in a deluxe edition this year. It’s an exciting moment to bring you Arooj Aftab’s Mixtape Memoir. 

Credits:

Host/creator/creative director - Carmel Holt @carmelholt @sheroesmixtape @sheroesradio
Engineer/Mixing/Mastering - Phoebe Wang @feebswang 
Theme music - Lucius @ilovelucius
Cover art - Merle Cooper @m.c.cooper
Art direction - @carmelholt 
Guest: Arooj Aftab / @aroojaftabmusic
Label: Verve Records / @ververecords