Artist description Alhaj is a Reggae artist with a twist. His brand of Reggae has Jazz blended into it. Russell Lyles keeps the sax blazing on the first song Black Man Walking. Alhaj changes gears from rough to cool on the second song Because I Need You So with background vocals by Trudie Watson. Trudie's vocals with Alhaj's bass voice and percussion makes you feel as if your in Jamaica. Many Reggae and Hip-Hop albums get stuck in one groove and stay there as if the artist is wearing blinders. Alhaj takes his music in different directions. As a case in point, on Don't Cry Alhaj tells women even though you've been hurt, there is still hope for new love. Michael Rowland meets Alhaj with electric bass. If your into Dance Hall, Reggae, and Jazz; Moving Into The Light is the one

Music Style African Jazz

Albums Moving Into The Light

Press Reviews Music says it all Lanham musician writes songs that explor social issues The events of last week have given Lanham musician Alhaj Azziz plenty of material for future songs. Azziz, a prolific writer with more than 1,000 songs to his credit, explores social issues around him, particularly the problems. He records under the name Alhaj. Why is it that for peace we have to fight? You can't hate and love at the same time. Alhaj said in an interview for tonight's video release concert at Club Elite in Temple Hills. Social issues of the day dominate the five CDs he has written since 1998. A lot of things that are going on right now I've already written about, he said. Alhaj said his 2000 CD voiced his thoughts about current social problems. Moving Into the Light explored African themes from his experience on both sides of the continent's issues. The song, Africa Got No Say Say, addressed its lack of voice in the modern world. Another, Fels, explored why colonialism does not work. Alhaj said his third CD, to be released in January 2002, will be about voting problems during the 2000 United States presidential elections. Alhaj's lyrics contain many cross-cultural and communication themes. Music is the one thing that every culture has, he said. He urges people with problems to find common ground to work them out. Alhaj's cross-cultural experience comes from his international upbringing. He was born in Washington, D.C., but spent a large portion of his childhood in Liberia and England. His great-grandmother was a Liberian princess, he said, his father the country's attorney general, and his mother Liberia's first female lawyer. From age 7 to 14 he attended a preparatory school in Sussex, England. The school's student body was international, containing students from Afghanistan to the U.S. Alhaj said he was born and artist, but did not know that he wanted to be a musician until he heard the Beatles song, Love, Love Me Do, in the early 1960's. He was not even 10 years old. He went gaga, he said, when he realized that something about it was exactly the way he wrote. His all-lawyer family, however, was unenthusiastic when he announced his intention to make his living as a musician while still in his teens, he said. To try to dissuade him his parents sent him to college at New York University in the Village. The setting proved to be ideal. I was in heaven, he said. At age 22, after college, he moved to the Washington area to pursue music full-time. A Howard University music teacher let him play there anytime. He also sat in on recording sessions to learn sound engineering and music production. A big break for his musical career came in Los Angeles a few years later when nine-album jazz artist John Lucien heard Alhaj playing a self-composition on a piano at A&M Studios near Sunset Boulevard. Lucien asked Alhaj whose song it was and then said he would like to have it. Alhaj thinks his self-taught musical skills are a spiritual gift. It doesn't belong to me. I dream songs. I can dream an entire song and then get up and play it. The composition process can take all night long and run into the next morning. Tonight's free concert is the debut of the video of the song, Because I Need You So, from Moving Into The Light. By: Laura A. Said (Special to the Journal)

Location Upper Marlboro, Maryland - USA

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