Training a new generation of effective leaders often involves mentoring through a shared passion. It involves someone with a strong skill set who is willing to help someone else feel the spark. We continue our occasional series "Pass the Torch" in the middle of a guitar circle.
Deep within Northern Illinois University's music building sits a group of musicians. Some have studied jazz, others classical, but it doesn't matter, because their maestro is the epitome of fusion.
Fareed Haque's father was Pakistani, his mother Chilean. And his biography? Well, eat your heart out, LinkedIN: voted "Best World Guitarist" by Guitar Player Magazine ... toured with Sting ... and performed for more than a decade with the band Garaj Mahal. His latest venture is perhaps best summed on his website, explaining that Haque "recently returned from interstellar pan-dimensional time travel to bring ‘jazztronica’ to earth with his new band MathGames!"
Clearly, his style is anything but textbook.
That's key for those who follow in his footsteps ... like Andy Czarnecki:
"I came in as a jazz studies guitar major, and I actually really hated classical guitar until I got to work with Fareed," Czarnecki says. "And, after working with Fareed, seeing him being equally versed in jazz and classical, I started to realize what a great instrument it is and a whole style I hadn't explored."
In the late 1980s, NIU approached Haque about teaching. He hadn't considered bringing his skills to the classroom, but hasn't looked back since agreeing to the gig.
Czarnecki says he has even had the opportunity to perform onstage with Haque.
"Fareed's exactly the same guy. He's having a lot of fun, but he's totally serious about his music. When he plays, it doesn't matter who you are; he commands the stage with his instrument."
And Haque isn't afraid to share the stage. "I don't use the word student. I say, 'Here's another great guitar player.'"
Czarnecki agrees that the line between student and performer isn't clear-cut:
"You don't need a music degree to go be a musician. So if you're coming for a music degree, you're definitely here for the next level," he says. "I think that Fareed has a very unique way of doing that. It's not, 'If you don't do well, you are going to get a bad grade.' It's 'If you don't do well, you're not going to get a gig.'"
"We've all been in that experience where we study and cram for an exam and get an 'A' on the test, and the next day we have no idea what we just did -- except we spent a lot of money doing that," Haque adds. "That doesn't ... I don't think ... help anybody in the long run. It doesn't help you in the workplace, it doesn't help the university in the long run."
Guitarist Brian Quinlan says Haque has taught him that understanding music can be a long journey.
"He's the kind of person that, you may think you know about music, and then you talk to him and you just start thinking, 'Where have I have been all of these years? I haven't seen nearly as much as this guy has.'"
Haque says he also likes to learn from the younger generation of musicians when they come to him with an idea.
"There's very rarely a 'no' from me, there are a lot of 'yesses.' 'Yes! let's look at that.' Then the next question would be to the bigger picture. 'How does that relate to what we are doing historically?'" Haque explained. "When you really study the most successful funk musicians and popular musicians, almost all of them have a background in jazz and/or classical music. So how do we draw that thread?"
"Above everything else, I think that's probably the best thing I've learned is he always has fun in whatever he does," Quinlan said. "That's something that's hard to teach sometimes to some people."
Do you know someone who is "Pass the Torch" to the next generation? Please help us share that story by emailing WNIJ Managing Editor Victor Yehling at vyehling@niu.edu. Just put "Passing the Torch" in the subject line.
