Roberto Riggio: Press

Their name means 'fire,' and these Texans are hot

Atash's mission is to bring happiness into people's lives. The band has already left a trail of blissed-out concertgoers across Taiwan
By Ron Brownlow
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Apr 13, 2007, Page 13


Atash played an unplugged set at Salt Peanuts, near NTNU, before moving to Peshawar for a second performance. From left, violinist Robert Riggio, violinist John Moon, vocalist Mohammad Firoozi, and guitarist Christian Fernandez.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BARBIE CHANG

When Mohammad Firoozi sings, people dance. Maybe not by moving their feet, but definitely inside their minds. Trained as a boy in Iran to sing the Muslim call to prayer, Firoozi's voice conjures images of whirling dervishes and the poems of great Sufi mystics. Combined with the syncopated hand drums, dueling violins, jazz bass and flamenco guitar of his World Music ensemble Atash, his lyrics create a spiritual groove that shoots listeners back in time and rockets them into a different dimension.

Atash means "fire" in Farsi — the language Firoozi sings in — and they've been burning their way through Taiwan. Named No. 3 World Music band and No. 10 Latin band by readers of their hometown newspaper, the Austin Chronicle, these Texans scorched the stages at Spring Scream with their other-worldly sound, then kindled a more intimate blaze earlier this week at three clubs in Taipei. Now they're taking their unique fusion of Middle Eastern, African, Indian and Western classical music with jazz and rock to Taichung, for two concerts that live music fans should not miss.

"This doesn't happen very often here," said Patrick Byrne, a jazz saxophonist who jammed with Atash after one of their three Spring Scream sets. Atash plays at his Groovecity club tonight, before moving to Alu Cafe for their final Taiwan performance tomorrow. Byrne said there's a "huge buzz" going around Taichung as a result of fans who saw the Texans in Kenting, and he expects his venue to be packed.

Using the words "unique" and "completely different" to describe the rocking, mystical sound of Atash has become a cliche by this point, but it's one that deserves repeating, especially in a country where indigenous World Music tends to mean ethno-pop artists reconnecting with local traditions, or New Age purveyors of mood music on themes such as tea drinking.

Atash's lineup includes formally trained US-born musicians such as percussionist Jason McKenzie, as well as instrumentalists steeped in the traditions of other countries. Djembe player Alseny Sylla is from Guinea and also leads an African drum troupe. Flamenco guitarist Christian Fernandez grew up with the music in a French gypsy family.

"It's a true fusion of musical traditions, not a sampling of global instruments and forms without a true understanding of where the music comes from," said Nathan Davis, a musician and DJ from Austin who organized two of Atash's Taipei performances.

It's also a complicated sound that has no name in the music industry's lexicon. "We've been described as a Persian group, as dance trance music, as Persian groove," said Atash violinist John Moon. "I've heard us described in so many different ways, but it's never been hit head on."

On Wednesday night at Peshawar music cafe near Shida, Firoozi engaged in a kind of duet with violinist Roberto Riggio, while other band members layered djembe and tabla drums, an upright bass and a second violin. Alternatively dancing and twirling his shirt, or nodding backwards and smiling, eyes half-closed, Firoozi sang poems about the Sufi mystics Rumi and Hafz. "We just sit and play," he told the small audience after one piece. "The song we played right now we just" improvised. "We never rehearsed it before." Soon after that he was dancing with a female audience member to what sounded like flamenco. Later, two musicians in the audience joined Riggio to cover Cat Stevens and Police songs. It was a small venue and a small audience in a small country, but Atash played a long set with a huge amount of energy.

Taking a break by the beer cooler as the Peshawar show was winding down, Firoozi explained Atash's philosophy: "What we really want to do is bring some happiness into people's lives. We know that when people listen to music, they come together for a while and they forget about the daily problems of life. As much as we do that for them, we also do that for ourselves. Because when we all are in a room playing music, we all become one."

NOTES
Atash performs tonight from 8:30pm to midnight at Groovecity inside TigerCity (台中老虎城旁停車場) at 120 Henan Rd Sec 3, Taichung (台中市河南路三段120號老虎城). There is a NT$300 minimum charge. Visit www.grooveyardtaiwan.com or call 0939-574-737 for more information.
Tomorrow, from 4pm to 10pm, Atash and indie band .22 will be featured at a Spring Scream party at Alu Cafe, at 10-5 Shuangshi Rd Sec1 Taichung (台中市雙十路一段10-5號). NT$300 entrance includes one drind. For more information, call (04) 2225-0088 or visit www.alucafe.com

Atash. With their other-worldly ethereal sound, they have made their niche across Texas and beyond, always pleasing their committed growing audience with a slew of unique eclectic middle-eastern beats, running in syncopation with the pleasingly grated voice of their lead singer, Mohammad Firoozi of Iran. We had a chance to catch up with the frontman violinist of Atash, Roberto Riggio, a former Rio Grande Valley resident, to share with us some of the current pursuits his band is taking, both locally and across the globe.

Tell me first a little about yourself, your band and the position you hold in it, and the overall history of your music.

Well, my name is Roberto Riggio, although most people in the Valley know me as either "Rob" or "Roby." I'm a violinist and composer. I direct a band called Atash, and write a lot of the music and the arrangements for the band. I was born in Monterrey, Mexico, but moved to Mexico City after a year, and then moved to Edinburg when I started elementary school. I started violin in the Edinburg string program, working with great teachers like Norma Cardenas, Kurt Roehm, and Efrain Flores, who are still teaching in Edinburg. I joined the Valley Symphony and South Texas Chamber Orchestra when I was in high school, and also played with the Edinburg High School mariachis. I moved to Austin in 1989, where I have been living on and off since then. I've also spent several stints in Europe, particularly Spain and Italy; New York; India; California; and Mexico, playing and learning music. We started Atash formally in 2001, and since then have toured in the U.S. (west coast and southwest), Taiwan, Macao (China) and Spain. We've released one album, entitled Republic of Love, which was hailed by Austin Chronicle critics as one of the best Texas albums to be released in the past few years. We come down to the Valley to play quite often, and we have a show coming up at Kaf's on December 18th. As for my life outside of Atash, I've pursued studies in Persian, Arabic, and Indian classical music, and have had the chance to work with some of the greatest teachers, like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ram Narayan, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Simon Shaheen and Marcel Khalife. I've also toured with some top international acts, including Fairouz, a legendary singer from Lebanon; Kazem Al-Saher, who is a great Iraqi singer; and, most recently, Youssou N'Dour, the top singer from Senegal, and one of the leaders in world music. We played Carnegie Hall on October 26th! It was a fantastic experience.

What incident from your earliest years contributed greatly towards your musical career?

I was very close to my grandfather when I was a kid. I lived in his house in Mexico City for the first years of my life. He was an opera aficionado, and a pianist and composer. He always had classical music blaring on his stereo, and he would stand there and conduct, or he would play the piano. My mother and all my aunts were musicians, played guitars, sang Latin American folk songs. When my grandfather died when I was six, my grandmother gave me all his old records and books on the composers, and I devoured them with relish. It was a way to feel that he was still with me. A few years later, one of my aunts discovered a reel-to-reel tape with one my grandfather's compositions on it, a mazurka. I studied it and taught myself to play it by ear, and composed my own variations, which is how I learned to play the piano. My mom taught me my first chords on the guitar, and all of my aunts and my grandmother taught me things, or encouraged my love for music in some way.

In terms of musicians and their respective bands, who are your earliest influences?

My earliest influences? Wow. Well, my family first and foremost. After that, Beethoven. Everyone at Robert E. Lee Elementary, even perhaps the music teacher, Miss Lois Kildahl, thought I was weird because while everyone was idolizing Kiss in the 70s, when they used to wear all the make-up and stuff, I was idolizing Beethoven. I was allergic to rock as a kid! I kind of had to go through the evolution of it to come into the present, and after many years of devoting myself to classical music, I got into the Beatles, and that started my journey to contemporary music. In high school I was into a lot of electronic bands, like Depeche Mode and New Order, and I liked Duran Duran and other bands at the time, but I was always a little retro -- still listening to a lot of classical, and to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd; when I hit puberty, I got into the "rock stars" of the Romantic era, like Paganini and Liszt. Through my mom and her sisters, I also heard a lot of Spanish music, like singers from Mexico and Latin America, and Spain, like Joan Manuel Serrat, Lucho Gatica, Violeta Parra, Inti-Illimani, Pablo Milanes, Silvio Rodriguez, Facundo Cabral, a bunch of others.

Are you fond of any other type of music outside of the kind you normally play?

I'm fond of many different kinds of music. I play in a band that has created its own form of music, which could be categorized under "world music." But world music itself is a very broad category, because, essentially, it includes all the music of the world. It originally referred to traditional "ethnic" music from different cultures, but with the evolution of tastes, and musicians getting to hear and be influenced by music from so many different places, now "world music" can mean almost anything. If it's not sung in English, call it world music, generally.

I enjoy listening mainly to Indian and Arabic music, but I also love jazz, European and Latin American folk and art traditions, singer-songwriters, pop from the sixties through eighties. In the nineties I kind of stopped listening to music sung in English to a certain degree. Not as a rejection of it, but my interests were just elsewhere. I was absorbing all this music from around the world. I've started getting back into pop in English lately, but I have a lot of catching up to do. My friends are always shocked at how behind I am.

What do you think about the current popularity of hip-hop and rap music?

One of my roommates in college did his undergraduate honors thesis on rap music, and living in the house, he exposed me to not only rap that was current at that time (the De La Soul period), but also to the origins of rap, and he turned me on to songs like "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott Heron. I appreciate certain things about rap. Dylan, the bass player in Atash, is deep into rap and hip-hop -- he started one of the most famous hip-hop bands in Austin, Big Game Hunter. His approach to our music -- the rhythms, the feel -- has given me more appreciation of aspects to rap. If I'm in a certain mood, I enjoy listening to it, and the lyrics crack me up. The more intense political rap is cool, too. I also appreciate that rap has started a global trend, which actually harkens back to more ancient forms of street poetry. You can hear people rapping in so many different languages now, and to be able to improvise that is a very impressive talent. I was in Spain for several months this year, and I was floored by the talent of some of these kids you meet on the street. It's more common to just sit around in a plaza with a guitar and have different people joining in and what not over there, and so you get these really talented kids rapping political stuff in Spanish, very well-composed, hard-hitting politically, but smooth and obviously improvised as well. Put that together with all the guys playing flamenco guitar in the street, and you have an incredible combination. One of my favorite groups coming out of Spain these days is Ojos de Brujo, who are doing just that.

As a band, where would you like to see yourselves in the next few years?

Well, I just had my first Carnegie Hall experience playing with Youssou N'Dour, from Senegal, one of the top artists in the world today, playing the stuff off his latest Grammy-winning album, which was just incredible music. I got to work with one of the great Egyptian arrangers, Fathy Salama, in that tour, and it was just an overall incredible experience. I learned a lot, and I gained a lot of inspiration that I'm bringing back to Atash. About the only thing that could top that experience would be playing Carnegie Hall with my own music!

How close, or far away, would you say you are to reaching your dreams?

Well, Carnegie Hall itself is just an indication that your music has reached a certain level of respect. The path to getting there is a long one. Youssou N'Dour began his career in 1979, and here it is 2005 and they're now doing a retrospective of his career. I know that there are many steps along the way to get to that level, but I feel that Atash is on the way. We've cut only one album so far, but we're going into the studio to make another one. We'll have our New York debut next spring in the first-ever Persian New Year Festival at the Bowery Ballroom, really high-profile event. The main thing is to keep growing as artists and keep developing our music, which is going into new, uncharted territories. It's a mingling of Persian, Arabic, Indian and Western classical forms with jazz, rock and African music. So it's a mixing of ethereal, abstract spiritual or heady music with driving, rocking earthy beats. It's not an easy balance to make! But we love what we're creating.

What’s your favorite TV show?

It's a toss-up between the Simpsons and Seinfeld. I like South Park a lot, too.

Has your position, whatever it may be, on war in Iraq in any way influenced your creativity?

Well, it's not just the invasion of Iraq. It's global politics in general. I think it's the job of artists to help people see things from a different angle, because artists do see things from a different angle. Doing all the traveling that we do, the collaborating with different cultures, different worlds, you get to realize a lot of things. The nature of creating music is trying in some way to move people, and to understand at least some small aspect of the nature of humanity. It's a celebration of life, and a commentary upon it. Even a protest. Our approach is not to create any "us" and "them" scenarios, but rather to be against that in itself. To be about the "we" scenario that encompasses all of us as members of the human race, and to work with each other from that perspective. There are so many shades of grey to everything. Every human endeavor is painted from white to black, with every color in between. Did I agree on the invasion of Iraq? No, and I believe there were hidden agendas at work. Do I believe that everyone and everything associated with the situation in Iraq is evil? Of course not. Absolutely not! There is so much goodness in man, that even the most despicable situations allow that goodness to shine. I'm sure there's work going on there that's much needed, and people are helping others, and there's a lot of good happening, just as there's, for lack of a better word, evil on all sides, too. Good and evil are like brothers that never leave each other's side. The problem is not one specific war. The problem is how do we relate to one another as humans. With our music, we try to offer a way of doing that. And, if you look at the composition of the group, we're all from different places, different ages, different races. We don't even have the same musical tastes, or training, or influences! But we create something that we all love to play. It's an analogy. Our singer is from Iran! This is Texas! People always laugh when we say that we're from Texas, because they think we're joking. The world can't imagine that anything like us could come from Texas. But they're wrong, obviously! It just goes to show that no one really understands each other. We all think in limited ways, and then someone can walk up to you and make you realize -- "Wow, buddy, your very existence contradicts what I thought I knew about the world!" (in Valley accent) Dude, you're freaking me out!

Would you say the overall band market here in the Rio Grande Valley is oversaturated?

Not at all. As a matter of fact, I feel very blessed to be in the position I'm in, because I'm from the Valley, and I live in Austin. I think the Valley should have more of a live music scene. I've traveled all over the world, and I've never found a music scene like the one in Austin. Just the quality of the average musician is so high there. But, being from the Valley, and coming here a lot, I know there's a lot of raw talent here. And there's a soul. There's something about the Valley that's very different from the rest of the United States. It's not quite Mexico, but it's not quite the U.S., either. It's got its own culture and its own vibe. People are hungry for things to do here, and they have an ability to enjoy life that is different from the general "American" way.

I'm happy to see that the Valley is growing, and the music scene is growing, and I'd like to be a force in that scene. There are some great bands in Austin that are made up of people from the Valley, like Echo Base, Del Castillo...Atash! (laughs) There are also great musicians in Austin that could influence musicians here in the Valley. I'd like to create some kind of musical pipeline between the Valley and Austin. There's so much talent in the Valley, but all talent needs to be fed and nourished in order to grow, and the great professionalism and mastery of some Austin artists, who are working hard everyday at gig after gig, could nourish up-and-coming Valley talent. There are also a lot of hidden gems right here in the Valley, that take you by surprise. Great trios and mariachi groups, Mexican musicians, jazz and country players, classical musicians like Geoffrey Wong. These people need to be respected and brought into the light! Businesses should embrace the idea of having live music, to feed the culture a little bit more.

At what venues do you like to play the most?

The only venue we ever play is Kaf's. I started supporting that establishment when it was a little coffee shop, owned by Fernando and Mo, from Colombia, and I've seen it through all its evolutions to be what it is now. Adrian, who runs the place now, wants to be a force for culture in the Valley, whether it's through wine, or music, or design, cooking, whatever. They've always treated us well and, though it's a kind of small place, we prefer to play there. But we need to switch to a larger venue down here eventually, because we're developing quite a following. We also do performances in big theaters and auditoriums, with dancers and stage design, etc. We need to find the right venue to put that on.

Do you feel that the popularity of Tejano music is waning here in the Valley? If so, why?

I don't think Tejano music can ever die here. It's definitely not dying in Austin. I live on the east side, and you hear Tejano music everywhere. If anything, it will evolve. I've heard some pretty cool spin-offs of Tejano music, and, just as has happened with other "world" music, it will be influenced by outside forces and change, and grow. I think people who like Tejano, and even those who don't, should listen to Manu Chao. He's a singer from France who lives in Barcelona -- I just met him a few months ago at a semi-private show of his there -- and he's considered to be one of the coolest musicians in Europe right now. Like, what Beck was to the U.S. a few years ago. His music is in Spanish, and it draws on some simple chuck-chuck folk stylings, but infuses it with punk, and North African music and other stuff, and it's, like, phenomenal. The Valley has some interesting musical heritage to draw from -- Mexico to the south, Texas country to the north, border traditional Tejano music, which, musically, sounds a lot like music from southern Austria, where they use the same button-accordion, and everything. Cumbia is really cool, too, and I know that it's popular down here.

What’s your advice to aspiring musicians of the Rio Grande Valley?

My advice would be the standard: follow your dreams, and believe in yourself. To that I would add: never settle for less than the best from yourself, but be patient with yourself when you aren't doing your best; and, of course, remember where you come from, and give thanks along the way!

The members of Atash are as follows:

Mohammad Firoozi, lead vocals
Roberto Riggio, violin and oud
John Moon, violin
Christian Fernandez, vocals, flamenco guitar
Dylan Jones, upright bass
Alseny Sylla, djembe
Rob Hooper, drumset
Jason McKenzie, percussion

Atash will be appearing on Sunday, Dec. 18th: McAllen, TX Kaf's, 400 W. Nolana, 8pm; doors open at 7pm. $15 cover. (956) 664-2464.

World music group Atash brings spiritual sounds to Kaf's

August 13, 2003

In 1997, Roberto Riggio played Espana and other Valley venues as part of a world music band called 1,001 Nights. Seven years later, he returns to the Valley with the intention of creating a musical and artistic pipeline between his roots in Edinburg and his new home in Austin.

"I want to contribute something to the arts community here," he said between bites of burrito at Banga Juice last week. "So I'm starting with bringing down my band Atash." The world music group is playing Sunday at Kaf's. Senses will also be delighted visually with paintings by Robert Vina from Edinburg.

Atash features vocalist Mohammad Firoozi, violinist Riggio, violinist John Moon, bassist Dylan Jones, drummer Jason McKenzie and Alseny Sylla who plays the djembe (bass drums).
Most band members add to their sound by throwing other instruments into the mix. The Austin-based band fits in the world music genre, but the sound fluctuates with elements of rock, jazz, classical and instrumental music.

"We've played a lot in Austin. Now we are in transition. Our drummer moved to Los Angeles, so we are looking for a drummer," Riggio said. "But the drummer will be with us again for a few shows, including the one in McAllen."

Riggio grew up in Edinburg as part of a musical family. He played in the Valley Symphony Orchestra, but he was not exposed to world music until a University of Texas professor asked him to play violin as part of an Arabic band.

"I took to it like a fish to water. I have not stopped since then," Riggio said.
His next major musical stop was a sprawling band called The Gypsies.

The band got Polyphonic Spree big. Shortly after, Riggio and a few others quietly retreated to compose Atash's six-piece ensemble.

"We all have different tastes in music," Riggio said. "We manage as friends to create a type of music that we all can enjoy. We've created our own musical language as a result."

Fashioning a musical language is not full of smooth melodies or free of personal conflict, Riggio said.

The band members closer resemble generations of women sweating in the kitchen, each adding their own spice and secrets to the stew.

"It gets heated sometimes when we start hashing it out, but what we come up with in the end is better than anything that we could have come up with individually," Riggio said.

Atash personifies the music it plays. The band is a mix of six Americans, Africans, Asians and Middle Eastern people.

"We get together, write songs and appreciate each person's perspective on music. We are more like brothers," Riggio said.

Songs are performed in Farsi, the language of Iran, and are adapted passages of medieval Sufi poetry.

"They talk about the love of God, the love of the beloved and how earthly and spiritual love is mixed together," Riggio said.

Atash's 2003 debut album, Republic of Love, carries this overriding theme of spirituality and love, but the album is a bit different from what you'll hear live, Riggio said. The result is a sort of mystical and hypnotic sound with an intense percussion-heavy backbone that has prompted people to float out of their chairs or to light a fire and dance around it.

"It's the rhythm that gets people," Riggio said. "We always start slow, but it builds."

The improvisational melodic force Riggio is describing is called "taqasim," and it works by taking listeners who fall in tune with Atash's vibe to a spiritual level.

Riggio said that the band's Middle Eastern focus has not caused them to lose gigs or wade through any trouble since America went to war with Iraq.
"We've had very positive experiences with the tension of war," Riggio said. "It's not the people in these countries waging war, it's the governments. We as people have to realize we are the same. We are getting to know each other culturally."
Riggio thinks that the band's smooth transition during tough times falls back on love, the baseline of Atash's message.

"Love transcends all divisions of race, politics and geography," Riggio said. "You can connect every person in the world through love. Even enemies can find a connection between them. We have these ideas in our mind about what kind of people we like or don't like, but life is really not that orderly. We all have something we can connect to inside another person."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 28, 2003

Iraqi Luminary KAZEM AL SAHIR Brings Love Songs to America accompanied by stunning 15-piece Middle Eastern orchestra. Tour to commence February 28th, 2003

A cultural icon throughout the Arabic-speaking world, Iraq's most popular living singer, Kazem Al-Sahir, embarks on an historic performance tour this winter. As the United States hovers on the brink of war with his country, Al-Sahir will visit major American cities in order to present a positive view of life and culture in his troubled region of the world, a view imbued with elegance, sophistication, celebration, and hope.

Al-Sahir's gesture transcends politics, but it is not na?. He believes that there is no more important thing he can do at this perilous moment than extend a genuine hand of friendship from one Iraqi to all Americans.


Kazem Al-Sahir says, " For me, composing music and performing for old and new audiences has always been and still is the most enriching experience of my life. I hope my music, and these performances with this notable group of some of the most talent Arab American musicians from all around the United States communicates a little bit of understanding and friendship with their fellow neighbors in these very difficult times. "


Kazem Al-Sahir has long been a force for artistic freedom, and he is no stranger to controversy. He began composing at the age of 12, reaching ambitiously into classical forms and themes. Programmers at Iraqi television recognized his extraordinary talent, but insisted that he sing material written for him, which he refused to do. After losing many friends during the Iran-Iraq war, Al-Sahir penned a defiant song called "Ladghat El Hayya, (The Snake Bite)," such a brilliant work that an ally in the media establishment maneuvered to have it broadcast.

While adored by the Iraqi people, the Iraqi censors objected to the song's lyrics about fear and betrayal, and banned it. Later, while studying at the Music Academy, Al-Sahir's bold efforts to merge classical music and pop ran him afoul of rigid, conservative professors. By then, his reputation had spread throughout the Gulf region, and there was no stopping him. After his first public concert in 1989, Al-Sahir was on his way to becoming the top-selling Arabic singer in the world.


The Gulf War halted Al-Sahir's career for two years. But since then, while living in Dubai, Egypt, Paris, and Canada, he has been both prolific and engaged, singing many benefit concerts, especially on behalf of children who become victims of war and oppression. Today he is universally acclaimed as among the greatest Middle Eastern composers, vocalists, and performers, as well as a fearless and compassionate innovator. He has parlayed the august language of Arabic classical music into the energized idiom of international pop.

Now he dares to respond to the prospect of war with the language of love. "I have memories of politics," he says, "but almost all of my songs are about love, in the manner of Shakespeare's `Romeo and Juliet.'" As a sign of his universal appeal, Al-Sahir's composition "Ana Wa Laila" was recently voted number-six among the world's most popular songs in a worldwide BBC listeners' poll.


Al-Sahir recently completed a duet recording with Grammy award-winning soprano vocalist Sarah Brightman, entitled " The War is Over " . The two singers will be filming the video this spring for release next summer. The song will be released both on Sarah Brightman's new album, as well as Al-Sahir's new release slated for the end of 2003.


For his unique American performances this winter, Al-Sahir will be joined by fifteen of the most respected Middle Eastern musicians currently living and working in the United States. The lineup includes virtuosos from Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and France, playing an enchanting array of traditional string and percussion instruments, in addition to modern pop instrumentation.

Just one example, Bassam Saba, is a master of the nye flute and has performed and recorded with Simon Shaheen's genre-breaking ensemble Qantara, and also with Yo-Yo Ma. Of special interest to fans of Arabic classical music will be representatives of the esteemed Merhej family of Lebanon. Michel Merhej, a virtuoso of the rik (a traditional Middle Eastern percussion instrument), will participate with his superbly talented daughters, Christinae and Claudette as the back-up chorus.

Some of the other instrumentation will include mazhar (frame drums) by Saad Fahmi, Butrus Hanna on tabla, Ramy Antoun on drums, Carlo Fakhoury on guitar, Elias Lamam on traditional accordion, Jamal Sinno on qanoun (zither), Roberto Riggio and Hanna Khuri on violins, and Khaled Khalifa on cello to name a few. The complete entourage will meet in Las Vegas on February 14 to begin rehearsals, and the public phase of the tour will begin at the Beacon Theatre in New York on February 28, followed by shows in Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and San Diego.


This exceptional artist is donating his time and talent to send a message of solidarity to Arabic and Middle Eastern communities all over the country, and a message of hope and friendship to all Americans.


This tour is sponsored and produced by Radio & TV Orient, a premier presenter and broadcaster of Arabic cultural arts in the United States. Radio & TV Orient has featured discussions and presentations with high-level representatives in the U.S. government, and sponsored many cultural events with top international performers, all with the goal of building bridges between Middle Eastern communities in the U.S. and those around them. The organization hopes to expand their radio and television station via satellite to broadcast in all the major cities in the U.S. within the next two years.

The present tour is the first of a two-phase project, the second phase being an expanded set of concerts featuring Al-Sahir and other artists to take place in October 2003.


TOUR DATES AND LOCATIONS

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Feb. 28th, 2003 Beacon Theater NY, NY
March 1st, 2003 Masonic Theater Detroit MI
March 2nd, 2003 Chicago Theater Chicago, IL
March 7th, 2003 Berkeley Community Arts Theater Berkeley, CA
March 8th, 2003 Holiday Inn on the Bay San Diego, CA
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Kamran Hooshmand and 1,001 Nights: Salaam

February 6, 1998

Unfortunately, not everyone who values traveling has the time and/or lucre to do so. Thankfully, artists like Kamran Hooshmand & 1001 Nights give us glimpses into other places and realities; in the case of Salaam, the journey is taken via Iberian, Greek, Persian, and Armenian music. "Shirin Jun (Dear Shirin)," starts with percussionist Erin Foster beating out the ghost-like gait rhythm on the darabukkah frame drum accompanied in melody by Roberto Riggio on violin and Hooshmand on saz, a Middle Eastern lute with a long neck and tied on gut-string frets whose pulling atmospheric sound reinforces the Iranian love song's sense of longing. Riggio's sublime solo on "Del-e Divaaneh (Crazy Heart)" is a voyage in and of itself; and Hooshmand treks gracefully between the vocals, saz, oud (the Middle Eastern forerunner of the guitar), and gut-string guitar. The thing preventing Salaam (the term means "peace" in Arabic and is a typical greeting in the Middle East) from being a better voyage - and it's still a damn fine one on this local indie label - is the teasing, just under 30-minute length. Then again this release, recorded on the KUT LiveSet program during a full moon evening in the summer of '96, is only a self-described sampler of what the band can do. Let's hope there's more in the works, for while it's ideal to travel in the first person, praise The Maker for giving us aural ambassadors like Kamran Hooshmand and 1001 Nights.