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Close-Up: Azad Right Opens for Tinie Tempah

The last time we met Azad Right, a young Iranian-American Hip Hop artist from LA, he had just released his debut album “A Piece of Mine” and was tirelessly working to spread his stylistic words and upbeat tempos to the music community at-large. After months of promotion and years of fine-tuning his craft, Azad Right’s ambitions came to fruition last Wednesday night when he delivered his first major performance, opening for international Hip Hop star, Tinie Tempah, at Hollywood’s well-known Key Club.

The concert marked a significant achievement for the up-and-coming musician, whose lyrical talent and on-stage swagger introduced audience members to Hip Hop rooted in authenticity, reflection, and determination.

After the concert, Azad Right chatted with Aslan Media to share his thoughts on the performance, his recent success, and what the future holds for the rising artist.

Magical (Musical) Carpet Ride

As summer quickly approaches, many of us will inevitably reminisce about years gone by. The end of school brought about warm evenings huddled with friends beneath a blanket of stars, singing folk tunes like “Cumbaya” or even Disney classics like “Hakuna Matata”. At some point in between the campfire smores and gossip about the latest high school “crush,” childhood delivered one of life’s most poignant messages: the similarities we share are stronger than the differences that separate us.

The recent musical performance, “A Carpet Concert with Rowan Storm and Friends”, hosted by LA’s Levantine Cultural Center on May 24, served as an opportunity to catch up on those important lessons, sans the smores and the high school hearthrob. The event craftily employed traditional music from Greece to Iran, Armenia to Arabia, highlighting the musical links that connect global citizens, in this time when we are constantly reminded of our differences. This praiseworthy ambition was achieved rather simply by the physical set-up of the concert.

In order to gather everyone together, Storm and her friends Naser Musa, Souren Baronian, and Jim Grippo requested that audience members sit on woven Middle Eastern carpets, a symbol for the intricate patterns that bind strand to strand, you to me. Thus creating a space so sacred that the concert-goers removed their shoes before entering, the musician carried on to provide music that felt righteous, a near religious experience that transcended time and place.

More About the Music: Rhythms of the Ancient Daf

Back in high school orchestra there was a rumor that the most ancient instrument was a percussion instrument, beating out Mick Jagger’s vocal chords by a few years. This was the daf, an instrument much like our old friend the tonbak, composed of a circular or rectangular frame covered by animal skin.

Played by the gentle thrumming of fingers, the daf has been used for a wide array of occasions ranging from religious services to Uncle Ali Reza’s dinner parties. To appreciate the full essence of the instrument, we ought to look at its illustrious history in the Middle East.

Famed for its role as the mood-setter in Solomon and Belgheis’ first night together (remember Al Green wasn’t born yet), the daf colored the sounds of many landmark moments ranging: from ushering in Nourouz (the Persian New Year) in ancient Iran, to Israelites playing it in front of the Golden Calf as Moses was busy on Mount Sinai, to welcoming the prophet Mohammed to Medina in 662 AD. It was first popularized outside the region by Moorish settlers in Europe, but, like the Macarena, the daf's popularity quickly declined. After the fifteenth century, when Spanish rulers sought to rid El Reino of its Arabic cultural influence, the daf disappeared from Europe. There’s good news though: the hardcore daff-iciando Ottoman Turks revitalized the instrument two centuries later with the introduction of the military marching band, sounding in conquest like no other.

A Turkish Kind of Rock: Spotlight on Grunge Band Duman

If you’re like me, when you think of Turkish music, you imagine Orhan Gencebay’s colorful folk tunes and foreign instruments like the baglama and tanbur. If not that, then the lively Gypsy jazz of Mustafa Kandirali may be more familiar.

Neither, you say? Alright, but let’s agree that one of the least likeliest forms of Turkish music is Grunge Rock—that iconic sound of teenage stagnation in the 90s epitomized by the after school ritual of watching Total Request Live and munching on the FDA nightmare diet of Bugles and Corn Nuts.

However, thanks to a generation of pioneers in the 1960s and 70s, the band Duman has been able to expand the genre of Anatolian Rock at home and abroad for the past decade. The verb “expand” doesn’t quite capture the trio’s impact, as their success has been as influential for many Turks as reading an article introducing Serge Gainsbourg would be to francophones. Useless, right? But for the unprivileged majority of audiophiles who have yet to experience Duman’s signature use of modern rifts and spooky vocals, their body of work serves as a worthy introduction to an emerging global sound.

The Yemen Blues

In a time when prospects for an Arab-Israeli détente may seem bleaker than ever, the need for alternative avenues of discourse is frequently highlighted but seldom explored.

Enter Ravid Kelahani. As a Yemeni Jew from Israel, he is uniquely qualified to be an ambassador of two cultures often erroneously labeled as “mutually exclusive”. Casting politics asides, Kelahani and the eclectic ensemble Yemen Blues confront the challenges of identity and by doing so, remind us that good music will always be good music, no matter if it’s in Arabic, Hebrew, or Parseltongue (for you muggles, that’s Voldemort’s language).

At first glance the moniker “Yemen Blues” suggests a fusion of Memphis soul and Arabic folk music. While some tunes are undeniably influenced by these genres, to classify the band’s music into “this” or “that” denies the wide musical range that typifies the band. Yemen Blues lends itself to several sounds ranging from Arabic pop to Balkan brass but if anything, many Western listeners will recognize a certain 1970s funk—a playful use of swooping chords and bouncy vocals that recall memories of Stevie Wonder.

The Beautiful Ferocity of Mohsen Namjoo – A Review of His Show at The Irvine Barclay Theatre

The provocative voice of Mohsen Namjoo channels a complex array of musical styles. He is, on one hand, a classically trained Iranian musician weaving intricate and timeless melodies; and, on the other hand, he is a kind of post-modern blues man of The Middle East, grunting and growling through songs with wild abandon.

Namjoo’s recent show at the UC Irvine Barclay Theatre on April 15 highlighted his exemplary skills. It was mainly a solo set that showcased both Namjoo’s songwriting and his storytelling, but Percussionist Ali Bazyar added a trance-like quality to Namjoo’s set. Though initially struggling slightly to lock into Namjoo’s groove, once Bazyar found it, his beats served Namjoo’s songs very well.