My Publications

The travelling songbird Faizul Khan Tanim interviews one of the most celebrated artists in Bangladesh and learns more about her distinguished, and perhaps unlikely, career ‘I do not know how to play the harmonium nor do I wake up every morning to practice’ One expects interesting interviews from great storytellers. In Momtaz, one of the country’s most prolific musicians, one sees such a storyteller. The awe-inspiring honesty in the stories she tells of rural and urban experiences reflect her ability to vividly conjure stories in her music. What makes her a yet more powerful singer is her high-pitched voice, which never goes out of tune and sounds fuller, richer and more open with every song. Her style makes the songs so dominant and adds such a potent emotional touch that everyone listens as if the Pied Piper of Hamlin is bewitching them. Her most humble admission was that she does not even know how to play the harmonium neither had vocal training nor does she practice singin...