Dawoud (a.k.a. Dawoud the Renegade Sufi, a.k.a. Dawoud Kringle, a.k.a. David Arthur Kringle) is a New York City based musician, author, and artist.
Early Life
Dawoud was born in Milwaukee, WI on May 6th, 1961 His interest in music seemed instinctive (he would later recall that the first music he remembers was the scherzo from Beethoven’s 9th symphony, which he heard on TV).
After some time as a devoted Beatles fan, Dawoud heard Jimi Hendrix’ first album, and on his tenth birthday, got his first guitar.
After sporadic guitar lessons, he became serious about the guitar. He did his first performance with a local rock group at age 14. Around this time, he performed at a high school talent show; and made an impromptu appearance with a Brazilian foreign exchange student from another school. It was his first time improvising music in front of an audience.
During his teens, he developed his musical tastes and began forming the foundation of his musical abilities. He studied jazz guitar for a while with Milwaukee based jazz guitarist George Pritchett (formerly with Buddy Rich), but ended up concentrating on rock music. He was to remain strongly influenced by Jimi Hendrix his whole life. He also became interested in Indian raga, and on his 18th birthday, bought a sitar.
Early Adulthood
After high school, Dawoud continued to pursue his music. He’d spent some years supporting himself working in factories and playing in rock ensembles at night. He formed a few groups as a leader, but a break came when he was offered a position playing bass in a local group called Focal Poynt. The bass was a new instrument to him. However, he took to it, and learned the band’s entire 36 song repertoire in three days. He toured Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan with Focal Poynt between 1980-83. His time with Focal Poynt laid the foundation for his knowledge of performance and live sound engineering.
After leaving Focal Poynt, he made the decision to move to New York City in 1983. He worked as a musician and musical director locally and toured with a number of local rock groups. However, owing to an oppressive substance abuse problem, his output and career during this time was unimpressive.
After achieving sobriety in 1988, Dawoud’s fortunes began to change. He was offered a job and training as a recording engineer and in house studio musician at Shadow Sound Studio, a studio owned by Ron Rogers / Blue Chip Records. He worked with Kid Creole and the Coconuts and others. During this period, he produced his first solo release “Life Experience”, and gained his earliest knowledge of recording engineering and production, and his first experience recording and performing music for theater.
Around 1992, he became disenchanted with playing rock music. He would later recall “I was listening to a recording of my own music, and it hit me that the quality I like in other people’s music was missing from my own.” After seriously contemplating abandoning music in favor of a career in audio engineering, he began taking jazz guitar lessons with Kelvyn Bell (Roland Shannon Jackson, Arthur Blythe, Lester Bowie, Kelvynator). Bell’s tutelage provided Dawoud with both the musical knowledge and the inspiration he needed to continue as a musician. A period of concentration on jazz followed, wherein Dawoud played jazz gigs throughout New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. He made several recordings of his own compositions and arrangements of music by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus.
During this time, he began his earliest work in film scoring, and released a recording titled “The Book of Simple Mysteries.” He also attended master classes with Pat Martino and Yusef Lateef.
The Sitar Period
Dawoud had purchased a sitar on his 18th birthday. He spent a few years of casual experimenting with it, but left it behind when he moved to New York. Around 1994, he returned to it, and began studying with Jeff Slatnick (former student of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar). His interest in raga and sitar slowly began to dominate his musical world. In 1996, he did his first public performance on sitar as a featured soloist with the Mysterious Tremendum ensemble. By 2000, the sitar was Dawoud’s main instrument, and he all but stopped playing guitar.
In 2000, Dawoud released The Tao of Mystic Jaz. This would be the beginning of a new phase in his music; one where he sought to transcend eastern and western music. He also became interested in the physical and psychic effects of music, and began to study and experiment with this.
In 2004, Dawoud released Renegade Sufi. This was a landmark recording for him. He made use of a number of musical innovations including the sitar synthesizer (he outfitted his sitar with a modified guitar synthesizer pickup that allowed him to trigger a synthesizer with his sitar), and a variety of composition procedures that had almost no precedent with the sitar (for example, on Burn the Idols, Dawoud played a solo on sitar exclusively comprised of chord melodies; something no sitarist ever did before).
The release coincided with his second European tour as a leader.
Between 2001 & 2005 Dawoud’s other achievements include building his first home recording studio, more sessions and live performances than are documented, teaching at the Bronx School of Music and Art and the Harlem School of the Arts, performing in Europe as a solo performer and bandleader (Paris, Milan, Zurich, Copenhagen, etc.).
Radio stations that featured Dawoud’s music include M3 Radio – New York City, WBAI – New York City, WPAT – New York City, Galaxie Radio Ontario,Canada, WNWK – New York City, WFMU – Jersey City, NJ, All That Jazz Radio – Malaga, Spain, WTUL – Baton Rouge, LA, Radio Voce Spazio – San Michele Italy, RCV 99FM – Lille, France, Radio Novosibrisk – Novosibrisk Russia, Radiopolaze Italio – Milano Italy, 91.7fm WHUS, Storrs, CN and other radio stations throughout the US, Europe, Russia, Poland, and Indonesia. A large number of internet radio stations, such as Lonely Oak Radio, play his music on a regular basis.
Renegade Sufi
Dawoud formed an ensemble he called Renegade Sufi, after his CD. He began to experiment with different permeations, always using the sitar as the centerpiece of the group. His approach to the music blended traditions from Indian raga performance with jazz and improvised music.
He also experimented with alternative venues. He would produce his own concerts in theaters or other venues. He did this to have a better control over the business aspect of his music, and to escape the drudgery of the club scene (Dawoud often expressed his dislike of playing in places where alcohol was served).
Music Meditation and the Sacred Forbidden Music
After years of experience performing live music for yoga and martial arts classes, Dawoud developed a system of musical improvisation that augments and directs the energies in the class. His Music Meditation grew out of this; it is a guided meditation wherein suggested imagery is replaced by musical form. Dawoud calls the music for this the Sacred Forbidden Music. For years he wouldn’t record it, believing that the true spirit couldn’t be captured in a record medium. But a limited edition CD of the Sacred Forbidden Music was released in 2016.
God’s Unruly Friends
Around 2014, Dawoud disbanded Renegade Sufi and formed a new ensemble, God’s Unruly Friends. It was an extension of Renegade Sufi, but incorporated theatrics (which Dawoud had resisted for a long time), more emphasis on vocals, and elements of the Music Meditation Sessions into a complete concert experience. Many of their performances were concerts Dawoud produced (including St. Mark’s Theater, WoW Cafe, and Bowery Church, headlined by Tribecistan). God’s Unruly Friends also performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Shrine, Shapeshifter Lab, Sera Phi, and other venues. During this time he became serious with the dilruba. He had bought one around 2004, and it soon became an integral part of his music. His interest in guitar and bass was revived around the same time.
Solo Work
After some early attempts at self-produced releases, Dawoud released his landmark album Renegade Sufi. This was followed by Journey of No Return (first released in 2012 as digital downloads), A Secret Odyssey (which was his first electronic music album), Apotheosis Now, and As Worlds Overlap”
Several collections of his music are available as digital downloads, including Dawoud’s film music, and his Legacy Collection.
Dawoud also recorded experimental electronic music under the name Sheikh Majnun. The name and bizarre persona of the fictitious character was devised primarily as a joke Dawoud played on some friends. The first official Sheikh Majnun collection, “The Legend of Sheikh Majnun,” was released digitally.
In 2011, he recorded music to be used specifically at the birth of babies. Recordings of the music were played at doula sessions, and were reported to ease the birth process. The music was not (and probably never will be) released to the public.
Large composition projects, such as the Harmolodic Raga Cycle (a 21 part cycle of improvisational templates that combine elements of Harmolodic jazz and Indian raga) are in the works. Several parts of the Harmolodic Raga Cycle were performed live, and videos exist of these performances.
In 2019, Dawoud began composing music for western chamber music and orchestras, He finished his first symphony, “Dreamscape Entanglement,” in the summer of 2019. Negotiations with orchestras to have the work performed were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the lockdown of 2020, Dawoud recorded an immense amount of music; mostly experimental electronic music. In the final two weeks of 2020, this music was released in the form of seven digital albums. Among these were Wonder, Love, & Power, Music of Another Mind (which was mainly meditative music), Tales from Isolation, A Mansion with Many Rooms (which consisted of older unreleased music), and The SymphoSynth Improvisation Series (electronic improvisations based on templates from Stravinsky, Messian, Scriabin, Slominsky, and Yusef Lateef).
In 2021, Dawoud was accepted as a member of the New York Composer’s Circle, and continued working on composing. By the end of 2022, Dawoud had released Unseen Places, and began work on his second symphony. The list of songs and compositions he published through BMI includes over 150 titles.
Dawoud’s writing
For years Dawoud wrote for several magazines. His blogs gained him some notoriety.
In 2013 his first novel, A Quantum Hijra: A Sufi Science Fiction Story was published by Leilah Publications. The book attempted to bridge the gap between religion and science. In 2015, Leilah released his second book, A Mansion with Many Rooms. This book is a collection of short stories. Relations with Leilah began to sour in 2016, and the books went out of print.
In 2023, Dawoud finished work on his third book, Bedtime Stories for Musicians and Other People. He plans to self-publish it.
A great deal of his writing skills were devoted to doobeedoobeedoo.info, the official publication of Musicians For Musicians.
Visual Art
After decades of doing art as a hobby, Dawoud was convinced by a friend to submit his work for consideration in an art exhibit. In 2015, his work was featured in the exhibit “On the Inner and Outer Worlds”, curated by Openings Collective, and displayed at The Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City. This would be the first time his work was displayed in public. His work has also been exhibited at other venues.
Dawoud generally uses mixed media, a combination of collage and abstract painting. He was taught a technique of using fluorescent paint that would produce a 3D effect, and incorporated this into his work.
Dawoud’s work was described as having a dreamlike and hallucinatory effect. Established artists have expressed their admiration of his work as being very original.
In 2018, Dawoud began to experiment with video production. He produced and released several music videos in 2019, and 2020 (including videos for the SymphoSynth Improvisation Series). In 2022, Dawoud began to incorporate AI image and video generation into his video work.
Dawoud’s teachers
Dawoud’s teachers include guitarist George Prittchet (formerly with the Buddy Rich Orchestra), sarod master Jeff Slatnick (Former student of Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, with whom he studied sitar and raga theory), pianist / composer Kaeef Ali, guitarist Kelvyn Bell (formerly with Roland Shannon Jackson, Arthur Blythe, and former principal at the Harlem School of the Arts), Michael Harrison (former student of Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley), and sitar virtuoso Ustad Shaheed Parvez Khan. Dawoud also attended master classes with Pat Martino and Dr. Yusef Lateef.
Legacy
Dawoud has a reputation among the music scene in New York City and elsewhere for being completely original. More than one musician commented “nobody does what Dawoud is doing.” His work on sitar and dilruba is considered unique and without precedent (although he often cited the work of the late Colin Walcott as an influence).
Dawoud’s music is often cited as having a spiritual and other-worldly quality. Stylistically, it’s quite impossible to pin down what genre much of his music is. Dawoud largely considers such things meaningless, preferring to concentrate on the psychoactive properties and artistic representation of the spiritual qualities of music. Urban legends have surfaced that his music has healing, medicinal properties, and generates powerful psychic effects. Attendees of both his concerts and Music Meditation Sessions, as well as listeners of his recordings have reported effects from the music ranging from deep meditation, resurfacing of repressed memories, trances and vision, and even out of body experiences.
His writings have engendered strong responses in some people. Rumor has it that small groups of people in the U.S. the UK and Egypt created a cult-like status for his books. His first novel has been compared to Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Personal Life
Dawoud was married to physical fitness trainer and 1998 Miss Universe runner up Sharon Hill Tsukuda between 1992 and 2000. In 2015, he married singer / songwriter Kosi (Akosua P. Gyebi). They were divorced in 2019. He has no children.
He was originally raised a Catholic, but abandoned it in his teens. He spent some years exploring esoteric spiritual disciplines and the occult arts, and was for many years a devotee to the teachings of Aleister Crowley. In 1994, he abandoned this and converted to Islam. He follows the Sufi path as a devout Muslim. He worked as a volunteer Islamic minister for the New York City Department of Corrections between 1998 and 2020 (retiring during the pandemic), and did occasional work as a substitute Imam and muezzin at Masjid al-Farah in New York City.
Dawoud has also worked as a live sound engineer, recording engineer, radio engineer, music teacher, and other jobs. He had two radio programs, both called The Overnight Shift, that ran on WNWK-FM (1998), and on WPAT-AM (2017-2020).
Dawoud is also involved in activism in the music communities. He is a member of Musicians For Musicians (MFM), a musician’s rights activist foundation, for whom he also co-produces their official podcast, and writes for their official online magazine doobeedoobeedoo.info, and for their newsletter.
Discography
Life Experience (1990. Out of print)
The Book of Simple Mysteries (1996. Out of print)
The Tao of Mystic Jaz (2000. Out of Print)
Renegade Sufi (2004)
Journey of No Return (2007, reissued 2016)
The Nine Invisibles (2016)
God’s Unruly Friends / A Pearl in Wine (2016)
The Sacred Forbidden Music (2016)
Love Letter from Sirius (2017)
A Secret Odyssey (2018)
As Worlds Overlap (2019)
Tales From Isolation (2020)
A New Beginning (2020)
A Mansion with Many Rooms (2020)
Music from Another Mind (2020)
The SymphoSynth Improvisation Series (2020)
Wonder, Love, & Power (2021)
Unseen Places (2022)
Theater and Dance
Aerial Dance” (Dha-Fusion Productions)
The Brothers Karamazov (Frost / Friedman Productions).
Windows (Leon Azul Productions)
It’s Wake Up Time (Bilal Family Productions)
The Answer” (Najiullah Productions)
Indigenous Woman (Muhayyideen Wisdom Theater Productions)
1001 Nights: Love Stories from Death Row (Kandake Dance Company).
Metamorphic Continuum (dir. Farhana Akhter)
Film scores
RAM (One Life Productions. dir. Edwin Porres)
The Rose (dir. Fareen Butt)
The Life and Times of Omar Khayyam (dir. Majid Beentaha)
One Voice; Our Youth (dir. Muhammad Stewart)
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way (Sunshine Star productions)
Beyond Baklava (Sunshine Star productions (Dawoud also co-directed two segments of this film),
10 Forward (produced and directed by Khalid Sawaf),
Life By The Drop: (directed by Tico Chango)
Sweet Dreams Momma (dir. Dianne Kirksey)
FiestaMania Goes Tutti Mundi (w/ The Gypsy Grooves Orchestra. Dir. Ilija Stankovic)
The Courtship of Tara (Wild Child Alien Films. Dir Myztico Campo)
Literature
A Quantum Hijra
A Mansion with Many Rooms.
A sample of the people Dawoud recorded and / or performed with
Lauryn Hill, Nona Hendryx, Mark Deutsch, Steve Gorn, Baba Don Eaton, The Brooklyn Raga Massive All Star Orchestra, Abdou Mboup (formerly with Pharoah Saunders, Joe Zawinal, etc.), Marie Alphonzo (Zap Mama), Tom Chess (formerly with Roland Shannon Jackson, Pharoah Saunders), Brandon Terzic, Sohrab Sadaat Ladjavardi, SoSaLa, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, The Mysterious Tremendum Ensemble, Ustad Muzallim Hussain, Jojo Kao (formerly with Fela Kuti), Akim Funk Buddha & Dha-Fusion, Daniel Carter, Sabir Matin, Sayyd Abdul Khabir (formerly with Duke Ellington, Count Basie), Idries Muhammad (formerly with George Benson, Etta James, Joe Lovano, Pharoah Saunders, Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Turentine, etc.), Melvin Sparks (formerly with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Leon Thomas, etc.), Rahn Burton (formerly with Rahsaan Roland Kirk), Larajji, Junni Booth (formerly with Elvin Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk), Tony Jones (formerly with Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle), Gilmar Gomes, DJ Celt Islam / Muhammad Abdullah Hamza, Gypsy Groovez Orchestra, Khaleel Muhammad, Mansoor Scott (formerly with Leon Thomas), Harry Whittaker, Bob Cunningham, Jessie “Cheese” Hameen, Dean Bowman, Kelvyn Bell, Steve Booke, Jimmy Lopez, The Open Music Ensemble, Shelley Nichole’s Black Bushe, and many others.