Fareed Haque is an American jazz guitarist, based in Chicago, Illinois.

Education

Haque was born in Chicago in 1963. His father was from Pakistan, his mother was from Chile. When he was a child, Haque traveled with his parents all over the world, spending time in Spain, France, and Iran, in addition to Pakistan and Chile. In 1981 he was given a guitar scholarship from North Texas State University, where he studied jazz guitar. He left after a year and studied classical guitar at Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he joined Howard Levy's jazz fusion group Chevere. Levy introduced him to Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who became a lifelong friend and mentor.

Early albums

In the late 1980s, Rivera introduced Haque to Sting, who had recently founded the record label Pangaea. Haque recorded two albums for Pangaea, Voices Rising and Manresa, and toured with Sting. He recorded Majestad, an unreleased album for Warner Bros. Records which included John Patitucci, Lenny Castro, Russell Ferrante, Michael Landau, and Carlos Vega. Then he signed with Blue Note Records, made the solo albums Sacred Addiction, Opaque, and Deja Vu, and recorded three albums with Javon Jackson. He also played with Joey Calderazzo, Joe Henderson, Bob James, Herbie Mann, and Cassandra Wilson. Garaj Mahal toured the U.S. for ten years, releasing several albums. In 2007 it won an Independent Music Award. Two years later Haque was named best world guitarist by Guitar Player.

Haque recorded with Goran Ivanovic, whose music is sometimes called Balkan jazz. Ivanovic was born in the former Yugoslavia to a Serbian father and Croatian mother, though, like Haque, he is based in Chicago. Haque and Ivanovic played classical guitar on their duets, Macedonian Blues (2003) and Seven Boats (2004).

From 2019 through 2021 and beyond, Fareed Haque and oud player Wanees Zarour restarted the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, with the encouragement and financial support of the Chicago World Music Festival and the Old Town School of Folk Music. (The orchestra's original incarnation ran from 1999 to 2004, led by Willy Schwartz.) Haque and Zarour recruited other local musicians to join them, and Haque also serves as concertmaster.

Classical music

Haque wrote the "Lahara Double Concerto" for guitar, sitar, and tabla. He performed it in 2004 with the Chicago Sinfonietta and tabla musician Ustad Zakir Hussain. He composed the "Gamelan Concerto" as a commissioned classical guitar piece for Chicago's Fulcrum Point New Music Project. With the Chicago Philharmonic he gave a concert in which he performed guitar concertos by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Aranjuez.

References

  • Official site
  • Interview by Brad Conroy
  • Sounds of Fareed Haque at Soundcloud