The Singer and Her Song

Her Big new break into the music world came along with the famous ‘Chokri Li’ - the new genre of a modern kind of music that was created with a purely traditional origin and was highly acclaimed by many a music critic across the country and even abroad. This folk music includes performances with her sisters, the celebrated ‘Tetseo Sisters’. Azi Tetseo says they grew up participating in the fullness of folk music which they learned from their parents who compose and are also renowned performers. But her journey as a musician dates back to as far back as she can remember as a kid, although during that time she wanted to become an Army Officer which she says ran out of steam eventually. Azi started singing at a very young age and was already well known in school when students her age had their faces buried in academic text books and were more worried about avoiding red marks than dreaming about what to become in life. She was active in extra curricular activities, Chakhesang Baptist Church Kohima music programmes, and took part in fashion events, cultural programs hosted for VIPs and tourist visits as well as AIR & DDK programmes. She also fronted the school band Beginners which won two consecutive DBS rock fests.Besides, she acted in numerous plays and played the main role in the first Naga short film on HIV. She was also part of the Naga Indigenous Cultural Centre (NICC) Cultural team from Nagaland which was awarded for Excellence at the AIR Festival Ahmedabad in 2001. Moreover, she has taught folk music at the IAS Academy in Mussoorie as part of education in Cultural Events for those who made it in the big league and were undergoing training. In Delhi, she performed with Nikhil Maukin at his annual revival shows and played and collaborated with Nise Meruno, Performers Collective, Nakshaktra and Basement Blues. Closer home, she has performed with the 4^th NAP now known as DGP band and many other solo acts as well as NSUD Concerts for consecutive years from 2001-2008, IIFT, NE Expo, Nagas Night Delhi annually, Hornbill Fest and a lot others. While in the international arena, she has performed and represented Nagaland at the North East Trade Opportunities Summit Bangkok, Thailand in 2008. Well, one can go on and on…Crowned as a beauty queen at one time, Azi says this experience helped her look at herself and realise her strengths while also enabling her to improve herself in terms of personality and poise to face life’s challenges. She feels that it has also provided a window of opportunity for a start in her modelling career.  For this super achiever, modelling started as a hobby, but now what began as just a side dabble has scaled heights, which is evident from the connections she has made in the Fashion Industry. She has modelled for NIFT, OGAAN, Sunita Shanker, Ocean Mehra, for Hindustan Times City, for Studio Faces and many other Fashion houses and Local Designers. Her exercise and beauty regime, she says, includes skipping in the morning and going for long walks besides eating a lot of organic Naga food. On the other hand, she also enjoys our famous Raja Chilly which she says keeps her on her feet. She is known professionally for her virtuosity on the Naga Tati, there’s also a little bit of guitar (as she puts it) thrown in as well as the drums sometimes. She says her taste in music is eclectic but specially enjoys rock and roll, soul and blues. However, she says she is hooked to French café music at the moment. Besides her love for music, she reads a lot and enjoys shopping and helping out friends with their styling and makeup. This young gifted musician wants to preserve and propagate our culture, create awareness for socially relevant issues like HIV, sanitation, women’s rights, child protection, environment protection, etc, through her music. While expressing that it is heartening to see many dedicated people giving their all to the cause, she also felt that gifted musicians are going to waste because of the lack of avenues. But then she also says “I think we musicians should come forward and give our best to create a strong base for us as well as those who will come after us. We have to create an industry that thrives. We’re lucky that the government has taken up an initiative like the Music Task Force”. She feels that music in Nagaland is a growing movement but opines that a lot needs to be done where a lot of variables are involved and while she is disillusioned that “we don’t have an industry which can support our musicians” she still feels that “the problems of not having a single common language proves to be a challenge for every Naga musician and composer”. Meanwhile, she credits Nibano Vamuzo and Nise Meruno for the vocal lessons as also her Mom for bringing alive the sounds of Folk Music in her. She does truly believe that most Nagas are naturally gifted musically and wishes music was compulsory in the school curriculum so that we could harness it. One of her dreams is to make Nagaland music a global phenomenon. Right now, she is working on a Folk Album with the Tetseo Sisters and another collaboration to create a Naga Café Music album. Surely, these are anticipated ventures from someone as promising as Azi, as also the other ‘Tetseo Sisters’ who so enrich ours lives by beautifully bringing strings of harmony to life over and over again.