The Guitar Prodigy from Karachi

in Music | May 29th, 2011 13 Comments

Usman Riaz began play­ing clas­si­cal piano at 6, then took up the gui­tar at 16. Fast for­ward four years, and you have this — the 20-year old Riaz play­ing his song “Fire­fly” in a music video that’s more like a mini indie arts film than any­thing else. At times, Riaz plays his Mar­tin XC1t like a piano key­board, but, all along, you can hear his acknowl­edged influ­ences — Kaki King, Michael Hedges, Don Ross and, of course, Jim­my Page. (Don’t miss these relat­ed videos.) You can learn more about the Karachi musi­cian in this two-part inter­view here and here, and also find his short album, Flash­es and Sparks, on Ama­zon here.

via 3 Quarks Dai­ly

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