Category: Music
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Mohammad Reza Shajarian (1940 – 2020)
Iranians Grieve Death Of Legendary Singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian
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The Most Feared Song In Jazz, Explained
Making sense of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.”
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Dance About I Hate Dancing
Directer, choreographer , dancer and filmmaker Jo Roy made a playful video based on a poem by British actor and comedian Stephen Fry…
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If you are the Prince, I would be your persian Princess
I was running late to work as usual, on the morning April 21st. Jumped in the car and started the engine. The radio got on and frustration suddenly rushed into my mind. “Stupid radio, Just be quiet” My hand was right on the switch to turn it off and suddenly I heard:”Prince was found dead in his…
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Iranian Fusion Band "Circle" CD Release – Toronto
This is the band that we introduced in our Persian magazine and we claimed that they got very close to adapting our beloved poet Sepehri’s poems into their songs. A challenge that most Iranian musicians wont even dare. 180 Shaw Street, Toronto 647 – 773 2158
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The Boys of Kabul Dreams
Kabul Dreams is a young ensemble blooming on the same grounds. Being the first modern punk rock band in Afghanistan, the group – formed in 2008 by lead guitarist and singer Sulyman Qardash, along with Mujtaba Habibi (their former drummer), and bassist Siddique Ahmed – introduced its own idiosyncrasy of criticism and discontent following the…
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Soz and Nauha and Singing for God
In this song Kabir evokes the image of our body, our self, being like the five-stringed musical instrument – the tambura. Made of the four elements and containing the fifth element – shoonyata or emptiness – we hold within our self the capacity to resound to a higher sound. But only if we learn to…
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Bizarre Ancient Persia in Snoop Dogg's Video
Iranian singer Amitis Moghaddam – stage name Amitis – released a bizarre ancient Persian-themed music video on Monday featuring well-known American rapper Snoop Dogg. The song is in English, although Amitis’ past tracks were mainly recorded in Farsi. On Facebook, Amitis has around 64,000 followers compared to Snoop Dogg’s 35 million, leaving us scratching our…
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Ajam Feels Like a Stranger
A few years ago, when I was searching on the Internet for Iranian mahali (folk) music, I came across the music of a London-based group called ‘Ajam’. Their music not only impressed me, but intrigued me as well. After listening to several of their singles, I made it a point to follow up with the…
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Tehran Based Musician Arash Akbari
As a young producer from Tehran, Arash Akbari has made his name releasing on Oído Records and on compilations with fellow experimental producers making similar sounds from Iran. Playing mostly guitar and laptop, exploring Ambient, IDM, Drone, Experimental music. While plenty has been written about his work, with ‘lush’ and ‘warm’ in almost every review,…
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Master Böyükağa
In this video the two generations of Iranian classical music Böyükağa and young singer Omeed Mazhari collaborate and create a transcendental musical moment. Böyükağa, the self learned master who couldn’t stand the pattern of ordinary life grew dissatisfied and lonely much like the Japanese Haiku poet of 17 century Basho. He is not with us…
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Iranian Band of Three Vagabonds "Velshodegan"
Velshodegan plays Iranian traditional music, a band of the three Musketeers that act like Don Quixote. They play the traditional musical scales but instead of the poetry associated with the Iranian classic music, their songs have no sadness ,no spiritual quests and no heartbroken lovers. They are singing sarcastic street slang that defies the norms. https://www.facebook.com/Velshodegan?pnref=story Mehran Fallahi singer, songwriter and Tar player, Behzad Hassanzadeh…
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Persian Pianist
Arshid Azarine’s music is a fusion of Jazz, and Eastern-Afro Melodies, combined with his Persian background. He has collaborated with Persian artists, inside and outside Iran. And he has a single in works, featuring Sussan Deyhim. http://world.idolweb.fr/ohrwurm-records/arshid-azarine/persian-sketches-for-piano/3760191120150.html https://www.facebook.com/ArshidAzarine
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Manitas de Plata Plays and Salvador Dali Paints
On the occasion of 92 years of Manitas de Plata, the site manitasdeplata.fr offers you an exceptional and very rare video for the first time. At this oaccasion, Manitas de Plata offered later a unique spectacle to Salvador Dali, who painted a rider on his horse during a second private concert.
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An Iranian Dark Blues Song
“A Plagued Garden” is a sad song about a land that has been neglected and deteriorated by war. A song that carries away Abdi Behravanfar every time he sings Iranian folk music of south intertwined with the elements of dark Blues and Jazz…
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Golnar Singing Free Jazz in Persian
Golnar Shahyar started her first musical training by playing piano at the age of 11. At 16 she moved with her family to Canada. A few years later she chose Vienna to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. She was a student of jazz singing in University for music and performing arts in Vienna. …
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ّIranian Post-Surf Psychedelic Rock
The band Muckers was founded by the guitarist, Emir, in 2011, who says he’s influenced by an array of contemporaries, from punk to garage rock to indie music. https://soundcloud.com/the-muckers-1/as-if-she-cares The original sound of post-surf and psychedelic rock, verging on punk has its audience still today. As a genre its been enjoying a resurgence all over…
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The Tragic Song of These Days
We are proud individuals living on the city But the flames couldn’t go much higher. We find God and religions to, To paint us with salvation. But no one, No nobody, Can give you the power,To rise over love, And over hate, Through this iron sky, That’s fast becoming our minds. Over fear and into…
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Khayyam’s Quatrains and Electrnic Music
Baroot, a new Iranian band (formed by Nooshin Abedi and Javad Safari in 2011) intention is to mix electronic music with folk music. In their first album “From Void To Void”, I have chosen a song that in a whispering tone resembles one of Khayyam’s quatrains. This song clearly reveals a pleasing depth and freshness…
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The Oldest Song in the World
In 1972, after 15 years of research Prof. Anne Kilmer (professor of Assyriology, University of California) transcribed one of the oldest known pieces of music notation in the world. The tablets date back to approximately 1400 B.C. and contain a hymn to the moon god’s wife, Nikal. Remarkably, the tablets also contain detailed performance instructions…
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"Light in Babylon" and "The Women of Teheran"
The trio of an Israeli singer of Iranian origin and a Turkish santoor player accompanied by a French guitarist create a fusion that incorporates music from different regions as well (Turkish, French and more). They are based in Turkey, Istanbul and perform in Turkey and in Europe. Here is their take on the force to…
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Persian Epic Dance
“Sohrab and Gordafarid” is inspired by the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a masterly rendition of Iran’s national history in verse by Ferdowsi. Sohrab is born of a night of love between the great Persian hero Rostam and Princess Tahmineh, the daughter of the king of Samangan. Seeking his father, Sohrab goes to Persia. Although still…
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Fiddler on the Roof & Iranian Jewish Wedding
To see a truly happy gathering of Iranian Jewish community and a charming Iranian Jewish man that suddenly comes in a wedding like Fiddler on the Roof and dances an Iranian hit song is heartwarming. Post by Ali Sadeghi.
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Dig Me in Hip hop Cemetery
They have got everything, well almost, they couldn’t bring the girls bu the big old engine Chevrolet, tattoos, ear rings, oversize tee-shirts, graffiti, skate boarding and the attitudes are much like the old time Block party rap. When for the first time in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang cast a phrase: “I said a hip, hop…
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Hatsune Miku, the Virtual Singer
Hatsune Miku, whose name means, “first sound of the future,” is a singing voice synthesizer with a humanoid persona, created by Crypton Future Media, Inc. and featured in over 100,000 songs released worldwide. In Japan, Hatsune Miku is a major phenomenon that grew out of fan-created songs. She has appeared in numerous popular video games…
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Lotfi Master of Persian Music
Mohammadreza Lotfi (January 7, 1947 – May 2, 2014) spend all his life preserving and celebrating Persian classical music. He created numerous recordings with master such as, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Shahram Nazeri, Hossein Alizadeh, and Parviz Meshkatian. Lotfi was one of the best contemporary masters of the Tar…
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Sormeh, a Persian Folk Music Band
Golnar Shahyar’s voice, the lead vocalist for the Sormeh Band, is the remedy for a rainy Sunday afternoon, when a cup of coffee and a cigarette is not enough to take you away from it all… Here I am. Powerless, left without my love’s caressing gaze… Left in longing of my lover’s embrace… No fire…
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Nick Cave, Foreplay in a Song
«Henry Lee» is a song from the album “Murder Ballads”, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The song is about a crime of passion and tells the story of a woman who kills a man because he did not sleep with her or love her. It is a duet with PJ Harvey, a British…
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Bob Dylan and Iranian lovers
There is speculation that Dylan’s recent album ‘Tempest’ could be his last mainly because the title of his work is almost resonates Shakespeare’s last play ‘ The Tempest’. It is not my cup of tea to contemplate on those kinds of rumor. One of the first songs in that album ‘Duquesne Whistle’ is a big…
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Gibberish English Rock Song
This song, Prisecolinensinenciousol, a parody by Adriano Celentano is sung entirely in gibberish designed to sound like American English. Celentano’s intention with the song was to explore communications barriers. «Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, because I like American slang…
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Saudi Arabia's King of YouTube
Alaa Wardi’s wiggling eyebrows and bushy hair are as recognizable as the madcap backdrops to his YouTube videos: the Technicolor Post-it wall from his cover of Lorde’s “Royals,” the floor-to-ceiling cardboard boxes from his interpretation of Rihanna’s “Stay,” and the patterned mattresses from the makeshift sound room where he has paid tribute to Arab singers…
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DJ of Your Serendipity – Jun Miyake
To introduce you to a unique and different style of musical composition, I have chosen this special piece, Lilies in the Valley, a musical score by Jun Miyake. Miyake is a successful Japanese composer, trumpeter and a UC Berkley graduate, with thirteen solo albums and lots of movie scores and soundtracks to his name. Lilies…
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DJ of Your Serendipity – 1
I found the magazine very addictive then I thought that there will be many like minded people who love alternative music. So I sent my list of music and a bunch of short anecdotes that goes with it for the collaboration. There…I got the job. I will be the Dj of your very personal moments.…
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Sogand, Iranian – German singer
Sogand was 5 years old when her Iranian parents moved to Germany. She is part of the ever extending diaspora communities all around the globe. In the world that in reality became a global village, the new generations of Diasporas grew up to love their motherland as much as being a proud citizen of host…
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Mississippi John Hurt – Spike driver blues
John Hurt sang of surprisingly violent and frank subjects in a disarmingly tender voice, coupled with an amazing technical mastery of guitar. This music will stay with you and is often quite moving and original, since it combines blues with elements and playing styles normally associated with “folk,” due to the fact that Hurt hardly…
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Drunk With Love
“Drunk With Love”, by Rana Farhan, magnificently mesmerizes with style, and an abundant beauty. Based on a poem by Rumi, the words of an ecstatic love poem, are brought to life in a smooth and serene way. Farhan sings the song in Persian, but in English, the words are searing. Drunk With Love- lyrics by…
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It is Sung in Yellow
Don’t listen to my voice, it is sung in yellow Don’t touch my heart, it’s sick with coldness Don’t get close to my soul, it’s been abandoned for years Don’t touch my brain, its pain is contagious And from afar, make me feel like a mystic A déjà vu of a creature that once existed…
