Some murical gut punches

[Sahand Sahebdivani]

Hi everyone,

How we experience music is incredibly personal. But sometimes what hits me in the guts has a chance to impact you too. It's why we used to make mixtapes back in the day. I remember our high school DJ Robin, making tapes for friends and classmates who he wanted to impress. One day in the park I heard a girl from class thank him for the latest batch he had made for her. She just wondered what that whiny song was with the lyrics "blablabla sobriety", He mumbled something about making a mistake putting it on the tape, who likes that song anyway, no idea how it ended up there. I kept quiet, because I recognized it as Tanita Tikaram's Twist in my sobriety, a melancholy evergreen. The song was amazing, the tragedy was that the person he wanted to share it with couldn't appreciate it as much as I would have, but I didn't receive his tapes of course.

I don't know if Robin is still making mixtapes, but today's melancholy gut punches seem to be coming from the Arab world. I remember just a few years ago the Syrian vocal virtuoso Lynn Adib bringing out her cover of the Egyptian diva Asmahan. The grandiose melodies sung almost as a soft whisper, or the thoughtful poetic songs of the Palestinian Faraj Suleiman who sings about how he could almost enjoy moving to Berlin, if it wasn't for his memories tying him to Haifa. And now, this Tunisian band Broua just breaks hearts that just started to mend with their track Esfer. 

And what an absolute delight that this month I can hear Broua play their songs live! Their concert on November 27 is part of the nights which Rogier, our music programmer, has booked. A list of concerts which are his love letter to our city:

Saturday Nov 22 / Disco Diaspora / From Tehran to Tehrangeles

Sunday Nov 23 / Orchestre Partout Jam / Free entrance, bring an instrument to join or just come to listen

Thursday Nov 27 / Broua Live / Tunisian Folk

Saturday Nov 29 / Beats Kebab / Ljubojna (Macedonia) & DJ set!

Thursday Dec 11 / Deniz Mahir Kartal / Anatolian Electro

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Of course Mezrab is more than music. We have, in somewhat chronological order:

- Another Tuesday night coming up tomorrow. It will be Samizdat, in which we let the stories talk politics and the personal becomes the focus of issues bigger than us. Next week on Tuesday we have our Pearls on a String night, in which storytelling meets improv and music.

- On Thursday we have the comedy solo of Anshita Koul called Where is your husband?

- Next Monday (nov 24) we also have a comedy open mic. No tickets needed, come support the brave. 

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That's it for now, so much to enjoy! See you at the events!

Sahand & Team

www.mezrab.nl

PS, the Storytelling School is in full swing! Did you sign up for an intro course yet? The next one is starting this Friday! More info at www.mezrabstorytellingschool.nl