Arooj Aftab Make Her Extremely Cool US TV Debut

Here’s what you’re going to do at the start of your Tuesday morning, or whenever you’re looking at this post. You’re going to pull up a video from last night’s episode of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, and you’re going to watch some jazz. You’ll be glad you did.

The Pakistani-born jazz musician Arooj Aftab has already been past some major career milestones. She’s won a Grammy, and she’s spoken at the White House. A few weeks ago, she performed on the BBC’s Later… With Jools Holland. And last night, she performed on American television for the first time. Our version of network television doesn’t necessarily make a lot of room for minimalist astral jazz that’s sung in different languages, but this made for some good TV.

On last night’s Colbert, Arooj Aftab led a band that included guitarist Kaki King, harpist Maeve Gilchrist, bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere, violinist Darian Donovan Thomas, drummer Engin Kaan Gunaydin, and tuba player Heather Ewer. With the stage bathed in red light, Aftab sang “Raat Ki Rani,” one of the singles from her recent album Night Reign. (It’s the same song that she performed on Jools Holland last month. It was hypnotic, and I’m very impressed that this made it onto TV over here. Watch it below.