Ensemble Dastan

[Giuliana]

Lensemble Dastan a t fond en 1991 par le joueur de tr Hamid Motebassem avec les musiciens Morteza Ayan, Mohammad Ali Kiani Nejad, Kayhan Kalhor, et Ardeschir Kamkar. Depuis 2000, les principaux membres actuels de l'ensemble sont, outre son fondateur, Saeed Farajpouri, Hossein Behroozi-Nia, Pejman Hadadi, Behnam Samani. De nombreux artistes iraniens participent aux enregistrements de l'ensemble ou aux concerts, comme Parissa, Homayoun Shadjarian, Sima Bina, Iraj Bastami, Bijan Kamkar ou Shahram Nazeri.

Hamid Motebassem Composer and Tar & Setar Player: Hamid Motebassem was born in 1958 in Mashad, Iran. He was raised in a musical family, where his brother was a violinist, and his first teacher was his father, Ali Motebassem who played the tar. His subsequent teachers included the masters Habiballah Salehi, Zeydallah Toloie, Houshang Zarif, Hossein Alizadeh and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Motebassem studied in the Tehran School of Art and the Conservatory of Persian Music. He was a member of the Chavosh Cultural Center where he taught music. One of the original members of Aref Ensemble, he founded Dastan Ensemble as well as Ensemble Chakavak after immigration to Germany in 1986. Hamid Motebassem is the founder of the Society of Tar and Setar and has since 1994 organized annual seminars dedicated to the two instruments. He has performed on numerous albums of contemporary Iranian composers as well as on all the released works of Dastan Ensemble since 1992.

Hossein Behroozinia Composer and Barbat Player: Hossein Behroozinia was born in 1962 inTehran. His teachers were the masters Reza Vahdani, Mansour Ebrahimi (Nariman) and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Hossein Behroozinia taught extensively at the Tehran Conservatory of Music and the Center for Preservation of Music, also in Tehran. He was a member of the celebrated ensembles, Mowlana, and Aref and joined the Dastan Ensemble in 1992. He has established classes in Persian music in Vancouver, Canada where he currently resides. Hossein Behroozinia has performed on numerous albums of celebrated Iranian composers as well as on all the released works of the Dastan Ensemble since 1992.

Said Farajpoori Composer and Kamancheh Player: Said Farajpouri was born in 1961 in Sanandaj, Kurdistan. His teachers were the masters Hassan Kamkar, Mohammad Reza Lotfi and Hossein Alizadeh. Said Farajpoori was a member of the Culture and Art Ensemble of Sanandaj, and has performed with the acclaimed ensembles Sheyda, Aref, Avat and Puyvar and cooperated with the Ava Ensemble. He joined the Dastan Ensemble in the year 2000. He has taught kamancheh at the Chavosh Cultural Center, the Center for Preservation of Music in Tehran, the Tehran Conservatory of Music and the Tehran University School of Music. Said Farajpoori has performed on numerous albums of celebrated Iranian composers as well as on all the released works of the Dastan Ensemble since 2000.

Behnam Samani Percussionist: Behnam Samani was born in 1967 in Charmahal, Bakhtiari. His main teacher was Jamshid Mohebi. Behnam Samani is the founder of the celebrated percussion ensemble, Zarbang and the Ensemble Samani. He has collaborated and performed with many acclaimed musicians both from the Persian as well as other traditions. He teaches classes in daf and tombak all over Europe. As the designer of an Udu drum called zarbang based on the clay pot, Behnam Samani has published a teaching manual for this instrument as well as for the daf. He joined the Dastan Ensemble in 1999 and has appeared in numerous prestigious festivals with the ensemble. He has performed on many albums of highly esteemed Iranian composers as well as on all the released works of the Dastan Ensemble since 2000.

Pejman Hadadi Percussionist: Pejman Hadadi was born in 1969 in Tehran. He began his training at the age of ten with masters Asadollah Hejazi and Bahman Rajabi. Pejman Hadadi is the founder of Neyreez Music Academy in California where he teaches daf and tombak. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Durfee Master Musician Fellowship. He joined the Dastan Ensemble in 1995 and later became a member of the celebrated percussion ensemble, Zarbang. Pejman Hadadi has performed and collaborated with many master musicians of the Persian and other World music traditions around the world, receiving great audience and critical acclaim. In addition to composing an extensive repertoire for percussion and dance, he has performed on numerous albums of highly esteemed Iranian composers as well as on all the released works of Dastan Ensemble since 1995.

Homayoun Shajarian Vocalist: Homayoun Shajarian was born in 1975 in Tehran; his father is the acclaimed vocalist Mohamed Reza Shajarian, a renowned master of the traditional Persian vocal style. Homayoun Shajarian began to play the tombak at the age of five; he discovered the traditional vocal music of Persia when he was ten, and his father became his teacher. He also studied kamancheh at the Tehran Conservatory. Since 1991 he has worked on stage with his father, accompanying him during tours of Europe and the United States. This recording was made in Berlin during his first concert tour on his own.

I'm a great fan of Arabic and Persian music because of the sound of its scales, but also for its often incredible technical skills, on voice and instruments, but first and foremost for the improvisational aspect and spiritual quality that it has. I lived for a couple of years in Morocco, in a flat almost above an audio cassette shop that played non-stop Arabic music in the street, from the most classical Oum Kalthoum over Fairouz to today's Rai music, so you either got to hate it or love it. In my case it was the latter.

Norwegian pianist and composer Jon Balke apparently feels the same, and he assembled musicians from around the world for his Siwan project, with Moroccan Amina Alaoui on vocals, Kheir-Eddine M'Kachiche from Algeria on violin, further accompanied by a couple of jazz musicians and a classical string ensemble.

The band consists of :

Amina Alaoui vocal

Jon Hassell trumpet, electronics

Kheir Eddine M Kachiche violin

Jon Balke keyboards, conductor

Helge Andreas Norbakken percussion

Pedram Khavar Zamini zarb

Barokksolistene:

Bjarte Eike: violin, leader

Per Buhre: violin

Peter Spissky: violin

Anna Ivanovna Sundin: violin

Milos Valent: violin

Rastko Roknic: viola

Joel Sundin: viola

Tom Pitt: cello

Kate Hearne: cello, recorder

Mattias Frostensson: double-bass

Andreas Arend: theorboe, archlute

Hans Knut Sveen: harpsichord, clavichord

It is a worthwhile album, if only for M'Kachiche's heartrending violin-playing and Alaoui's brilliant singing. They play in the tradition of the muwashah, the Arab music that has strong links with Andalusia in Spain and hails back to the time when Granada and Cordoba where among the cultural centers of the muslim world, and even the world in general. Hence a number of the compositions are sung in Spanish, a language that is still quite known in the north of Morocco. The first three tracks are excellent, with violin and voice determining the music's deep melancholy and feeling of longing. It enters a stylistic danger zone when Jon Hassell plays his muted trumpet on the fourth track "Ya Safwati", but luckily it's only an intro to a tempo increase for the string section and Alaoui's voice. And to Balke's credit, he manages to keep the whole album on a relatively high level, with not too many concessions to accessibility for western audiences. At some moments the sugar coating becomes a little too heavy, on "Zahori" for instance, on which M'Kachiche's violin is superb and it would have sounded even better without the trumpet that plays in a different scale and mood even, incapable of matching the subtlety of the Arabic music. The highlight of the album is "Tulthiyat", on which again the long central piece of the composition on which Alaoui's singing is mainly supported by the Algerian's violin : simply staggeringly beautiful. The last track in Spanish lacks the same emotional tension, because of its more familiar European scales.

In all, a good album, and let's hope it brings more people to Arab music, and to the other albums of Amina Alaoui.

Some of the better Arabian jazz albums to recommend is Lebanese Rima Khcheich's "Falak", accompanied by a Dutch band led by saxophonist Yuri Honing. Her voice is also among the best of the Mediterranean. On another album, "Yalalali", she even has an Arab version of "My Funny Valentine", just accompanied by a bass.

One of the better albums in the real Arabo-Andalusian genre is Ensemble Ibn Arabi's "Arabo-Andalusian Sufi Songs", with Abdellah al Mansour El Kheligh on vocals.

If you want to hear more female vocal virtuoso musicianship, you should move towards Iran for Persian music. Easy to recommend are Hossein Alizadeh - Birds, Parissa & Ensemble Dastan - Shoorideh, and Parvin Javdan - Rozaneh, three albums on which the singers will bring tears to your eyes.

Watch a video clip of Jon Balke & Amina Alaoui

Jon Balke's Siwan - Live at Stavanger from RADIALSYSTEM V on Vimeo.

Ralisation et productio : Seham Boutata

Montage : Alexandra Longuet

ditorialisation et production : Clara Gouraud

Mixage : Antoine Dahan

Doublage : Claire Olivier

Lectures : Alexandra Longuet

Avec la participation de Sophie Fourestier, Sara Rahbar et Atiq Rahimi

Extraits musicaux : Star Spangled Banner de Jimi Hendrix, Daramad Mahur de Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Man O To de Ghazal Shakeri, Solo de Kamancheh de Shahram Nazeri et l'ensemble Dastan, Man O to par NU, Age Ye Rooz de Liraz Charhi, Layla Bawanem

Extraits musicaux : Le Chant intrieur pour flte de Zhang Xiaofu, Attaquez de ZHANG Xiaochi, trangre au paradis de Gloria Lasso, Sent to Mars de Zhang Xiaofu, Er huang de Qigang Chen, Morning Prayer de Wang Li & Wu Wei, Mountain Caravan de Puman, Greatest Work of Art de Jay Chou

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