Sumon (musician)

Early life and career

Bassbaba Sumon was born in 1973 at Dhaka, Bangladesh to Mr. Nazmul Ahsan Khaled. He has two brothers and a sister. He attended Government Laboratory High School. After that he completed his graduation from Dhaka City College. He started playing Hawaiian guitar at the age of 7. In an interview, Sumon stated that he was unable to buy a Spanish guitar, so he took his Hawaiian guitar to a shop and converted it to a Spanish guitar. He picked up his first Spanish guitar & formed his first band when he was 12. He started playing bass guitar when he was 15. He joined one of the most popular bands of Bangladesh 'Feelings' as a bassist when he was 17 where he played with the greatest rockstar of Bangladesh, Faruq Mahfuz Anam, commonly known as James. He did the first ever unaccompanied bass solo in Bangladesh when he was 17. He played with 11 bands by the age of 19. He wrote, sang, produced his first solo album when he was 20. He is known for his nice grooves, excellent use of different bass playing techniques, and, mostly, for his quite frequent bass solos in his band Aurthohin's songs.

Bangladesh is a country where rock music, specially metal and alternative rock, is getting popular and Bassbaba Sumon is credited as one of the few most influencing artists in this sector. He has single handedly changed the role of bass guitar in Bangladeshi Music. It is said that bass playing has become a hugely attractive thing to the young music lovers of this country only because of the influence of Bassbaba Sumon. He is also a key figure in promoting Rock music in this country.

In 2016 he released his first solo bass album named "Soul Food Part 1".In the album, Sumon collaborated and featured world renowned musician, in the likes of Felix Pastorius, Robert ‘Bubby’ Lewis, Josh Cohen, Bob Franceschini, J.D. Blair and Erfan Nazem Zadeh. Talented Bangladeshi drummer Mark Don is also featured in one of the tracks.

Illness

After the release of Aurthohin's fourth album, 'Dhrubok', Sumon's health deteriorated. In 2011, it was announced that he had stomach cancer. After surgery and chemotherapy, Sumon was pronounced cancer-free in 2013. He wrote a song about his illness, "Cancer", which appeared on 'Aushomapto 2'. Cancer came back and he had to go through total of 12 surgeries in 5 years.

Personal life

Sumon is also the director of Khaled Group of Companies. He has two children: Ahnaf (Born in 1997) and Aurora (Born in 2003). Both of them had sang with him in his album Boka Manushta'.

Discography