As Mubarak Farah sat at the piano, playing through a range of beautiful melodies, several students busying themselves at their computers, listening to music or just hanging with friends simultaneously raised their heads, looking over to the instrument in the center of the AC Hub. Some even danced to the tunes with glee.
This was the scene of the Piano Man event in the AC Hub, on March 6, to finish off the free-play piano week.
Aside from being the singer-songwriter and lead keyboardist for his band, the Airliner Blues Band, Farah also studies introduction to music industry arts at Algonquin.
He also teaches piano to young children ages six through ten and recently released his band’s album Fired Up this summer. He also plays many different shows in his cover band, Common Ground, in bars and once a week at the open mic at Hurley’s Neighbourhood Grill.
Farah was diagnosed with glaucoma at birth, causing him to be permanently blind since the age of eight. His love of music came to him when he began to learn the piano at seven and continued to play despite his loss of sight. “Music kind of became an outlet for me, you know,” said Farah.
From early on, Farah knew he wanted to continue his journey through music despite his disability, but to do it alone would have been a whole other task.
“I knew that if I wanted to make it, I needed a band to help get the music out there. It’s just not the same without a band.”
“And now I play with people who are much better than me at what they do. It’s like they are just kicking my ass the whole time,” he said with a laugh.
With the recent release of his band’s album, on which Farah wrote most of the material, Airliner Blues Band has been getting lots of attention lately. The band toured around eastern Ontario for a while before being featured at the Ottawa Bluesfest last summer. “That was definitely the best show we’ve done, and the best venue too,” said Farah. As to his favourite song on the album, it’s always the next one he comes up with.
In the music industry arts program, Farah enjoys learning the history of music –where and how it came to be.
“If you want to know where you’re going, you’ve got to know where you came from,” said Farah.