About Fareed

Fareed Haque is a modern guitar virtuoso. Steeped in classical and jazz traditions, his unique command of the guitar and different musical styles inspire his musical ventures with tradition and fearless innovation.

Born in 1963 to a Pakistani father and Chilean mother, Fareed’s extensive travels and especially long stays in Spain, France, Iran, Pakistan, and Chile exposed Haque to different kinds of music from a very early age. While this natural eclecticism has become a hallmark of Haque’s music, it was repeated visits to Von Freeman’s Chicago jam sessions that gave Haque a grounding in the Chicago blues and jazz traditions. The 1981 recipient of North Texas State University’s Jazz Guitar Scholarship, Haque spent a year studying with renowned jazz guitarist and pedagogue Jack Peterson. Fareed’s growing interest in the classical guitar led him to transfer to Northwestern University, where he completed his studies in classical guitar under David Buch, John Holmquist, and Anne Waller.

Soon after his transfer to NU, Haque came to the attention of multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy and joined his latin-fusion group Chevere. Thru Levy, Haque was introduced to Paquito D’Rivera and began a long and fruitful relationship with the Cuban NEA Jazz Master. Numerous world tours and recordings including Manhattan Burn, Celebration, Havana Cafe, Tico Tico, Live at the MCG were to follow. Especially notable is the classic and award winning “Reunion” featuring Haque along with Arturo Sandoval, Danilo Perez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mark Walker, and David Fink.

Thru D’Rivera, Haque was brought to the attention of Sting, who had just begun his record label Pangaea. Sting invited Haque to join the label where he released 2 critically acclaimed recordings, “Voices Rising” and “Manresa”. Haque toured briefly with Sting, including notable appearances at The Montreux Jazz Festival, as well as NBC’s Michelob Presents Sunday Night with David Sanborn, but his own career demands led Haque in other directions.

After a short stint at Warner Bros. recording “Majestad” (unreleased and featuring John Patitucci, Michael Landau, Russel Ferrante, Grazinha, Lenny Castro, and Carlos Vega), Bruce Lundvall signed Haque to the legendary Bluenote Records. While at Bluenote, Haque recorded three albums as a leader: “Sacred Addiction”, “Opaque”, and “Déjà vu”. Haque toured and recorded extensively with other artists, including tours and 3 CDs with Javon Jackson: “A Look within”, “For One Who Knows”, and “Good People”. In addition, sideman credits include tours and recordings with Joe Henderson, Herbie Mann, Bob James, Richie Cole, Joey Calderazzo, Kahil El Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, and numerous Bluenote recordings for producer/arranger Bob Belden alongside Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Joe Lovano, Paul Motian, and many others. Numerous classical recitals, as well as appearances with the Vermeer Quartet and many symphonies across the US and abroad, added to an incredible diversity of performances during this period.

Thru Belden, Haque was invited to join forces with Joe Zawinul as part of his Zawinul Syndicate. The group proved to be one of Joe’s best and most eclectic. Included were percussionist and vocalist Arto Tuncboyacian, drummer Paco Sery, bassist Mathew Garrison, along with Haque on a hybrid acoustic ‘Guistar’ and Electric Guitar. A year of extensive touring brought Haque closer to his Jazz/Rock roots.

In 2001, Haque’s interest in jam bands and the jam scene led him to co-found the jam super-group Garaj Mahal featuring Kai Eckhardt, Eric Levy, and Alan Hertz. This began 10 years of extensive touring across the US, performing in excess of 200 shows per year. Haque also joined George Brooks’ group Summit, featuring Zakir Hussain and Steve Smith. Haque was voted ‘Most Valuable Player’ at the 2002 High Sierra Music Festival. Haque and Garaj Mahal released 3 Live CDs as well as 5 studio CDs: “Mondo Garaj”, “Blueberry Cave”, “w00t”, “More Mr. Nice Guy”, and “Discovery”, which featured Haque’s debut of the Moog Guitar.

In 2004, Fareed premiered his “Lahara Double Concerto” for Sitar/Guitar and Tabla with The Chicago Sinfonietta at Symphony Center in Chicago, under the baton of maestro Paul Freeman, featuring tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain, to whom the work is dedicated.

In 2006, Fareed was commissioned to compose a classical guitar concerto for the Fulcrum Point Ensemble. His “Gamelan Concerto” was premiered in May of ’06 at The Harris theatre in Millenium Park.

In 2007, Garaj Mahal won an Independent Music Award.

In 2009 Haque was voted ‘Best World Guitarist’ by Guitar Player Magazine’s Readers’ poll. His acclaimed 2009 release Flat Planet was twice #1 on the World Jazz Radio charts.

After 10 years of over 2000 dates with Garaj Mahal, Haque’s interest in electronic music and the Moog Guitar spurred him to leave Garaj Mahal and form Fareed Haque’s MathGames, featuring bassist Alex Austin and drummer Greg Fundis.

Notable events during this time include Haque performing and assistant directing the first Jazz Festival in Frutillar, Chile under his mentor and friend Paquito D’Rivera, and appearances with his own groups at Java Jazz, The Chicago Jazz Festival, The Twents Guitar Festival, The Indy Jazz Fest, Coleman Hawkins Jazz Fest, Jazz in June, The Lafayette and South Bend Jazz Festivals, Sophia Jazz Fest, Bulgaria and many others around the world. Haque also performed both the Aranjuez and Villa-Lobos guitar concertos with The Chicago Philharmonic, under the baton of Lucia Matos at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

Since 2011, Haque has returned to his first loves, jazz guitar and classical guitar. He has been busy performing and recording with B3 virtuoso Tony Monaco, Drum legend Billy Cobham and his own group the Flat Earth Ensemble.

Releases include the critically acclaimed “Out of Nowhere” featuring drummer Billy Hart and bassist George Mraz, The Flat Earth Ensemble’s release “Trance Hypothesis” and The Tony Monaco/Fareed Haque release “Furry Slippers” that reached the top 10 in Jazz Radio Airplay as well as “IndoBalkan” featuring Serbian guitarist Goran Ivanovic.

IN 2016, Haque was invited to perform at the Indianapolis Jazz Festival Tribute to Wes Montgomery along with Peter Bernstein, Bobby Broom, Henry Johnson, Will Mathews, Russell Malone, Pat Martino, and Dave Stryker. He was also a visiting scholar at Western Michigan University. Recent projects include artistic directorship of numerous jazz festivals, performances with Tony Monaco, Paquito D’Rivera, Vijay Iyer, pundit Vikku Vinacrayam, long-anticipated reunion concerts with Garaj Mahal, concerts in India, a return to Java Jazz, and concerts and teaching in China.

In 2017, Mr. Haque released The Bridge with virtuoso Chilean bassist Christian Galvez and renowned Indian percussionist Selva Ganesh. Haque has also rekindled his duo with Goran Ivanovic. Performances include Canadian Guitar Festival, Winters Jazz Fest NYC, Lotus Music Fest, and many others.

In 2018 Haque joined drum legend Billy Cobham as a member of his Crosswinds Ensemble featuring Haque on guitars, Randy Brecker on Trumpet, and Paul Hansen on sax and bassoon. Extensive touring and recording followed with the release of Cobhams recording “Time Lapse Photos” featuring Haque, and performances throughout Europe and the US.

2018 also saw the release of “NEW LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC FOR GUITAR AND STRING QUARTET”, picked by Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune as one of the top releases of 2018 and Downbeat Magazine Editor’s Pick in 2018.

In 2018 Haque retired from 30 years at Northern Illinois University to accommodate extended tours with Cobham, Goran Ivanovic, and his own groups. Highlights included The Montreux Jazz Festival with Cobham, and appearances with his own groups at The Bluenote Beijing, Louisville, and Minneapolis Guitar Festivals among others.

In 2019 Haque released “INDO BALKAN” with Goran Ivanovic on the legendary Delmark Label.

IN the same year, Haque and colleague Wanees Zarour were invited by the City of Chicago to form the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra, a 14 piece world music group featuring musicians from around the world living in the Chicago area. Voted best new world music ensemble by the Chicago Reader, the group is now a 5013C and continues to perform, conduct residencies and outreach.

After the Pandemic, Haque has returned to touring and recording. During 2021 Haque corresponded with his mentor and friend Pat Martino, and with the Pat’s blessing recorded his version of Martino’s classic album “Joyous Lake”. Following Pat’s passing, the record was released along with Fareed’s performance of Joyous Lake at Pat’s memorial.

Haque has been featured on WTTW’s ArtBeat and Chicago Tonight, Ben Sidran’s New Visions, Michelob Presents Sunday Night with David Sanborn on NBC, his own Lonesome Pines special for PBS, and on BET cable jazz channel. Fareed has twice been selected as Talent Deserving Wider Recognition in Downbeat Magazine. In 1989, Haque also joined the faculty at Northern Illinois University as professor of jazz and classical guitar. He retired from NIU in 2018.

Fareed has performed at many jazz festivals including the Montreux, North Sea, Chicago, Detroit, and Java Jazz festivals and has been featured as part of the Made in Chicago Series performing with his numerous groups at Millenium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion in Chicago. He also performed and arranged numerous classical programs as 2013 artist-in-residence for The Chicago Latin Music Festival, was featured on WBEZ, as well as WFMT’s Fiesta! radio programs, and has recorded his arrangement of Piazzolla’s 5 Tango Sensations, El Alevin by Eduardo Angulo Leo Brouwer’s Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet with the critically acclaimed Kaia String Quartet. Haque continues to tour and record extensively along with documenting his unique teaching methods in a series of best selling interactive video courses through TrueFire.