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Entries associated with the tag "Persian music":May 23rd - 4:10 p.m.
I almost didn't hear about this concert in time to share, but Iranian vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian, one of the greatest living practitioners of Persian classical music, is making a rare local appearance Saturday night at 8 PM at the Northeastern Illinois University auditorium, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr (click here for more info). He's a dynamic virtuoso who sings with a powerful emotional bravura, embroidering austere instrumental backdrops with his elaborate melodies. He's been performing since 1959 possesses an redoubtable knowledge of Persian musical traditions. A few years ago the World Village label gave a belated stateside release to Shajarian's 1984 masterpiece Bidad, which sets poetry by the Iranian icon Hafez to compositions by Parviz Meshkatian. Persian music has many modes, called dastgahs, which instruct the performer how to modulate and alter the melodic pattern before looping back to its original form. Music governed by dastgahs is essentially monophonic--there don't tend to be chords or harmonies--but on Bidad the players improvise brilliant lattices of contrapuntal lines, fill in spaces with delicate curlicues and trills, and take round-robin solos. Shajarian's tonal elasticity, his seemingly effortless improvisational fluidity, and his gift for lyrical invention turned him into a star in his homeland (he also got a little boost from the emphasis on homegrown traditions after Iran's Islamic revolution). He sang at Symphony Center back in 2005 as part of the Masters of Persian Music, and considering the increasingly frosty relations between the U.S. and Iran it's a pleasant surprise to see him back in Chicago. Still, I wouldn't pass this opportunity up lightly--there's no guarantee our next administration will adopt a homeland-security policy that's any more sensible about foreign artists and musicians. Today's playlist: Richard Crandell, Spring Steel (Tzadik) November 1st - 6:20 p.m.
In Iranian classical music the vocalist is the raison d’etre—the instrumentalists are crucial, but in general, they’re present to provide meticulous, carefully modulated and strictly regimented support for the singer. The Dastan Ensemble’s skill explains why they’ve been chosen by heavy duty singers like Parissa, Shahram Nazeri, and Sima Bina as accompanists, but they’ve worked hard to establish an instrumental tradition. On last year’s Dastan Instrument that’s just what they did, showcasing original material without a vocalist in earshot.
The thing is, the brilliance of the group—presently Hamid Motebassem on tar and setar, Pejman Hadadi on percussion, Saeed Farajpouri on kamancheh, and Behnam Samani on percussion—comes through loud and clear when they work with singers. The group performs tomorrow night at the Ryan Auditorium (2145 Sheridan) on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston at 8 PM in support of Endless Ocean (Ava Korshid), a stunning new album with singer Salar Aghili. The singer and the ensemble form a dazzling union, each instrumental passage so inextricably linked to his vocal lines that Dastan is doing a whole lot more than just backing him up. The members get plenty of space to improvise—although it’s always within the rigid parameters of dastgah, the system of modes that organizes Persian classical music—but the greatest pleasure for me is basking in their precision, group sound, and the way they convey serious emotion using clusters of notes within tight intervals. |
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