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Baker's Dozen

Virtual Mentors: Arooj Aftab's Favourite Albums
Jessica Wrigglesworth , April 5th, 2023 09:52

Arooj Aftab takes Jessica Wrigglesworth through thirteen albums that have defined her life and career, from her childhood in Lahore to studying at Berklee, the "New York hustle" of her 20s to her rise to international acclaim

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Begum Akhtar – Thumris Sawan Ghazals

Begum Akhtar has been on rotation for me for a really long time. I’ve just listened to anything and everything that she has. Some of her really great stuff is only on YouTube, some is only on Spotify, her discography is kind of, as some classical stuff is, just all over, but I love her. And she's my virtual sort of mentor in many ways. So I just picked any album – I picked a ghazal album because people like ghazals, but all her stuff is so good. And they're not really albums even. When I was looking through on Spotify, It's hard to be like, “Yeah, that one”. But this one is actually an album and it is really, really amazing.