Musical tribute to slain scribe Daniel Pearl on Sunday

MUMBAI: Five-year-old Jordan Pinto, a Class I student of St Stanislaus School in Bandra, is practicing a unique musical tribute to Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal scribe who was beheaded by the Taliban in Pakistan. Jordan is the youngest singer from Mumbai to join a memorial that is taking place worldwide throughout Pearl’s birth month of October.
The parents of the deceased writer, through the Daniel Pearl Foundation, host the Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days to commemorate his birthday on October 10.In Mumbai, Fort restaurant Soul Fry Casa will host the event on Sunday, October 14, from 12 noon to 4pm. Well-known musicians and singers from the city, including a cappella groups, duos, trios, soloists, choral singers and beat boxers will perform throughout the afternoon. The restaurant has devised a special menu at reduced rates in memory of its well-loved patron.
“Jordan will sing ‘Sleeping Child’, a song he came to love a few months ago when his father played it for him on the computer. I’m not sure he understands the meaning of each line but I am trying to explain it to him,” said his mother Marushka, who hails from a family of choir singers. The child travels to Bandra every Sunday from his residence in Mahim to train with Alfred D’souza of Stop-Gaps choir.
Pearl was based in Mumbai when he was kidnapped while working as the South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. He had travelled to Pakistan to investigate the links between ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid and the al-Qaeda.
Soul Fry director Meldan D’cunha said, “Pearl and his wife Mariane were regular patrons at our restaurant when he left for his assignment in Pakistan. He was a keen music lover who played the violin and would often jam here, especially when we held our popular jazz nights. His parents have chosen to observe his birthday as a day of celebration rather than mourning and in a manner reflecting his mild nature and passion for music.”