Soul Man: Zaib Khan

Soul Man: Zaib Khan

by Melanie Crissey

It’s Wednesday night at Nik’s Back Porch and Zaib Khan is comfortable. The bar is full of folks sipping on longnecks, watching baseball, laughing with the bartender, but Zaib is the only one in the room with both of his feet propped up on a chair.

He stands up and takes a corner of the stage under the soft glow of electric KENO. The band fills in empty seats at a Moog synth, a drum kit, and a keyboard hooked up to a Leslie speaker cabinet. The wall behind them is papered mostly with beer logos from the faces of cardboard six pack carriers, but there’s also a defamed paper mask and a poster of Elvis Presley.

Without introduction or conversation, the band breaks into the smoothest cover of Yearning For Your Love. A friend at a nearby table addresses my visible surprise:

“Wait had you never heard this guy before?”

“No. First time.”

“Good grief, woman. At least you’re here now.”

Zaib and his band carefully curate covers for their live performances, pulling from R&B, funk, and soul artists. You get the sense that you accidentally walked in on a jazz band practicing in a basement, playing the songs they truly love to play.

Another round and several songs later they have me forgetting that Lonely Avenue is a Ray Charles classic. It sounds original. They’re that good.

Apparent musicianship aside, there’s something specific about Zaib. His voice sounds easy. His delivery is too pure. He’s soulful, but not pained.

From what I’ve heard, Zaib’s a local family man. Encouraged by positive response, he walked away from college to find his career in music. He says: “I would get good feedback, so I kept going. In a way, music had to happen because there was nothing else I wanted to do. When I was younger, I had no idea I’d be singing songs to pay the bills.”

Now he makes a living playing out around the South, from smoky bars in the Carolina foothills to swanky parties in Atlanta, and back home again. Recently he and Rhett Huffman (keys, synth, bass) played the Forever Young Ball. Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed thanked Zaib publicly, saying “Thank you for a terrific live performance.” Of his bandmates he says, “I feel so lucky to be around such great musicians. Each is the real deal, a pro’s pro for sure.”

As a songwriter he’s just starting to come into his own. Earlier this year he released a selftitled EP Zaib Khan. His personal, earnest, and unapologetically simple form of storytelling carries us through six original songs that pivot between gospel, jazz, and country conventions. His strongest single The Wind is also the most vulnerable:

I sing songs, every Saturday,
down at the Old Vinings Inn
And people sing along to songs they know
But then they turn their heads when it’s one I wrote
That’s okay cause they don’t know
Maybe one of these days they’ll hear what I wrote
This I hope

Back at Nik’s place, posted up at a hightop with a half-empty Terrapin, I have the sincere pleasure of shaking Zaib’s hand after a set. It’s too loud for formal salutations, so he hands me a business card. I turn it over in my palm. It reads the most ubiquitous mantra of optimists: Do. What. You. Love.

Do what you love?” I hurl my cynical voice at Zaib over the noise of the crowd. “Ya know, some people might say that’s a privilege.”

I don’t know,” he smiles back. “It’s working for me.”

And he’s right. Whatever he’s doing, it is working, and we can’t wait to see what he decides to do next.

 

photography by Barbie Andrews