The Jazz Ghazal Project brings mid-20th century musical traditions from two continents into direct conversation. At its core is a shared emotional vocabulary: love, loss, distance, and longing. In original, one-of-a-kind arrangements, vocalist Kaushik and pianist Sharik Hasan place selections from the Great American Songbook alongside Urdu ghazals from India and Pakistan, revealing how these traditions echo and challenge one another.

Songs made famous by voices such as Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra meet the poetic intensity of ghazals interpreted by legends like Mehdi Hasan, Farida Khanum, and Begum Akhtar. The result is not fusion for its own sake, but a deliberate exchange—where melody, lyric, and improvisation illuminate shared histories of heartbreak and hope.

Kaushik (rhymes with “caustic”) brings a commanding baritone shaped by the lineage of great jazz voices like Johnny Hartman and Mel Tormé. Based in Harlem, he blends deep roots in Indian music with the intensity of his earlier rock fusion work. Over the past decade, he has become a fixture of the New York jazz vocal scene, with featured performances at the John Coltrane Jazz Festival and National Jazz Museum in Harlem, among many others.

Pianist and composer Sharik Hasan, widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation to emerge from India, anchors the project with technical precision and expansive musicality. Now based in New York City, he tours internationally with Postmodern Jukebox and leads his own band, MND FLO. In 2021, he joined the faculty at Berklee College of Music as a professor, further solidifying his standing as both performer and educator.

The Jazz Ghazal Project is a rare, carefully constructed dialogue between jazz standards and South Asian poetic song—intimate in scale, expansive in scope, and rooted in traditions that continue to shape global music today.