Fans rally as music pioneer Cheb i Sabbah faces cancer

When I got an email this week from Ryan Romana, an indie music publicist in the US, I thought it was another press release about some upcoming World Music album. That’s what Ryan,  a publicist with Press Junkie usually sends out. But this one was different. [caption id=“attachment_29473” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“DJ Cheb i Sabbah performs during the Sundance Snowball Showcase held at the Sundance house at Kimball Art Center during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Rob Loud/Getty Images”]  [/caption]

Dear Friends and Fans of Cheb I Sabbah Recently, our dear friend and musical pioneer Cheb i Sabbah was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer at San Francisco General Hospital. He was advised that the cancer was spreading to his liver and left lung. Without immediate and proper treatment, the prognosis given is very grim.

It’s always shocking to hear the news about anyone being diagnosed with cancer. It’s even more sobering to realise that  even an internationally renowned American musician like Cheb i Sabbah, spinning in San Francisco one day, and in Jaipur the next, also does not have health insurance in the United States. Ryan writes:

Due to his weak health condition, Chebi_ji_ found himself having to cancel live shows, meaning his income stream has come to a complete halt, with mounting medical bills and future medical costs ahead.

The fight over health care reform has been a bitter one in America.  Much of it feels academic to those who already have health insurance. Much of it has been about the cost of insuring those who don’t have any. Now we know one of the costs. It’s the music of someone like Cheb I Sabbah. I have known Chebi_-ji_ from my days in San Francisco.  With his long hair tied in a bun and glasses he’s quite a fixture on the music scene there.  I have interviewed him in his little apartment in San Francisco with its Nataraj prints and brass figurines.  I have gone to clubs like Nickie’s in the Haight in San Francisco where he DJed his unique mix of trance and fusion, zig-zagging the world musically, from deep dance rhythms to Bengal’s Purna Das Baul. I have watched everyone dance to him from Indian gay men to blonde women with bindis and henna tattoos. I have listened to his albums like Shri Durga and its anthem Kese Kese. And I often forget that this man is not desi at all. He was born in Algeria. His uncles were masters of Malouf music. Cheb i Sabbah really is the godfather of South Asian fusion music. I knew his love for Indian and Pakistani music  resulted in albums like Shri Durga, Mahamaya Remix, Krishna Leela. What I did not know was the rest of his remarkable journey. He spun in discos in Paris more than 45 years ago. He created a group called Tribal Warning Theatre, managed the global jazz icon Don Cherry, booked concerts for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. People struggle to label his music. Indian classical with dance rhythms? Is that trans-global? Trance-global? Cheb i Sabbah told me he didn’t care what you called it as long as you don’t call it “world music”. “I have my own personal, philosophical jihad against world beat” he said with a chuckle. “World beat — that’s just gross.” World music has the connotation of a thieving magpie, jet setting around the world, picking up music from here and there and mixing it together in New York. “You can’t just take, you have to give,” he said. Now his friends are trying to give back to him. They have launched the Cheb-i-Sabbah Cancer Treatment Fund for all his fans around the world to raise the money to send him for treatment at a clinic in Germany. At the time I met him several years ago, Cheb i Sabbah told me he had to go to the dentist.  He had not been in a long time. “I am a musician, I don’t go to a dentist until it hurts,” he said with a shrug. I laughed then. But I realize now as I digest the news about his cancer the true import of that statement. Not being able to go a doctor “until it hurts” means one day you realize you have Stage 4 stomach cancer. I looked at Cheb i Sabbah’s page on Facebook the other day. It was full of good wishes from fans around the world. One even offered to bring him to Mumbai for treatment. Shahid Choudhry, a fan, writes on his page:

Dear Chebi_ji_, each time I see you spinning somewhere around the world I always remember the good old days at Niki’s some 10 years ago, when I used to drive down  (Highway) 280 direct from work after midnight, enjoy and dance to your music till 2am and on the way back grab a slice of pizza next door and drive back home.

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On each message  of goodwill there is at least one Like. It’s from Cheb i Sabbah himself. And for the uninitiated, here’s a little of Cheb i Sabbah’s music. The first video is where Cheb i Sabbah talks about his music and the second is a video of his track called Kese Kese taken from his album Asian Travels.