Zeshan B: Chicago-Born Opera-Trained Indian Muslim Soul Singer

Chicago’s own Zeshan B’s fearlessness as an individual translates into music that knows no boundaries and takes from a wider range of influences than we may be used to hearing in one musician’s discography. In 2017 he released Vetted, his debut album, to critical acclaim. He made his national TV debut that same year on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Since then he’s been touring and preparing for his next release. We talk about his experience in music education, his current project, and how we all share an inherent hunger for groovy music.   Here’s an external link to every Musical Mention in this episode: 0:20 Zeshan Bagewadi 1:48 Bill Withers – Lean on Me 1:50 M.C. Hammer – Can’t Touch This 3:50 Lithuanian Opera 5:35 Raj Kapoor 6:45 Luciano Pavarotti 10:35 Gospel Choir 10:53 Gregorian chants 11:17 Chicago Lyric Opera 13:33 Don Giovanni: a Mozart Opera 13:45 Giuseppe Verdi 13:45 Beethoven 18:20 Soul music 18:48 Sam Cooke 18:50 Ray Charles 18:54 Chicago Blues 18:54 Muddy Waters 19:00 Curtis Mayfield 19:01 Mahalia Jackson 19:34 Bill Withers 19:34 Marvin Gaye 20:54 Medhi Hassan 20:55 Kishore Kumar 20:56 Mohammed Rafi 20:58 Shafqat Amanat Ali 21:05 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 21:07 Qawwali 21:15 Bollywood Music 21:45 Qawwali 21:48 Ghazal 22:05 Jagjit Singh 22:27 Medhi Hassan 22:32 Ghulam Ali 24:35 Ghazal 24:35 Indian Classical Music 24:55 Lady Gaga 24:55 Bruno Mars 25:30 Folk geet (Indian folk music) 25:38 Qawwali 25:38 Ghazal 27:15 Drum kit 27:19 Farfisa Organ 27:35 Harlem Renaissance 27:36 Langston Hughes 27:38 Zora Neale Hurston 27:44 Amiri Baraka 27:47 Assata Shakur 28:45 Elvis Presley 28:50 Tom and Jerry Theme song 37:00 Harmonium 40:23 Sitar 40:40 Indian Classical Music 43:22 Meri Jaan 43:27 Little Walter – My Babe 43:41 Muddy Waters 43:42 J.B. Hutto 43:43 Bo Diddley 44:33 Howlin Wolf 44:38 Donny Hathaway 44:40 Curtis Mayfield 44:41 Mahalia Jackson 45:05 Get Higher 45:06 Brown Power 49:37 Kurt Weill – Street Scene 49:58 Gian Carlo Menotti – The Consul 50:18 Dmitri Shostakovich 50:20 Leningrad Symphony 50:40 Richard Strauss – The Alpine Symphony 51:00 Beethoven Symphony No.9 51:07 John Coltrane – A Love Supreme 53:05 Lestor Snell 53:12 Isaac Hayes 53:12 Al Green 53:15 Shaft 54:45 Bhangra music