Zeshan B On 'Melismatic' And Creating Music That Champions Brown Power
Zeshan Bagewadi is in many ways, a classic soul singer. As Zeshan B, he channels the music of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. His signature, though, is combining that classic soul sound with lyrics that pay tribute to his South Asian roots. On his latest album, Melismatic, his first collection of entirely original compositions, he sings in both English and Urdu.
Like Cooke, Gaye and Redding, Zeshan B also tackles the issues of the day through his music. "Brown Power," the lead single from Melismatic, is all about solidarity between historically oppressed minority groups. That parallel history is something that he says he has always heard as a common thread between Indo-Pakistani music and soul.
"When I was growing up and my folks were bopping to Desi music as well as soul music, I felt that these things were so intrinsically linked because
