Veteran Pakistani musicians’ jazz album making waves on Western music charts

A group of veteran Pakistani musicians have made it to the top ten of western charts with an innovative jazz album, prompting comparisons with Buena Vista Social Club's rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.

The Sachal Studios Orchestra has captured imaginations with a cover of Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' blending sweeping classical violins with sitars, tablas and other eastern instruments, The Guardian reports.

Ninety-year-old Brubeck praised the piece, calling it "the most interesting" version of 'Take Five' he's ever heard, after it propelled the orchestra's album towards the top of the iTunes jazz charts in the US and UK.

The album, which includes versions of 'The Girl from Ipanema', 'Misty and Desafinado', reached the top 10 in both countries.

"I'm so excited. I don't have words to express how I feel," Riaz Hussain, the 55-year-old violinist who arranged the music, said.

Recording at premises on the edge of Lahore's walled city, the 60-strong orchestra mixes local legends with musicians recently enticed out of retirement, some from lives of poverty. Few knew much about jazz before, the paper said.

The project is the brainchild of Izzat Majeed, a millionaire philanthropist based in London.