Amid chaos, world music still rocks
Musical brilliance and raw energy and joy are alive and well here s the latest
published : 19 Jan 2021 at 04:00 Star Feminine Band. John Clewley
Riding high at the top of this month s Transglobal World Music Chart is the Isreali-Persian singer, songwriter and social activist Liraz Charhi.
Her new album, Zan, which means women in Farsi, was released last November. Given the dire situation for the entertainment industry, it seems appropriate that this album was crafted secretly through collaborations with musicians in Iran. The album is a mix of traditional beats with rock and jazz, and features Liraz s superb voice.
Ney music with a mission
“La Melancolie Royale” is an hour-long Sufi meditation on the reed flute by the great Turkish virtuoso Kudsi Erguner. Marian Brehmer on a Sufi musician with a mission
“Listen to the reed flute, how it tells its tale / How it bewails the pain of separation” – it is no coincidence that the Persian mystic and poet Rumi began the
Masnawi, his 25,000-verse masterwork, with the ney as a symbol. After all, the ney, like almost no other Oriental instrument, represents the yearning of the soul for its origins, for a union with the divine source from which it originated.