Category Archives: Iran: music, culture, social issues

Interview: Koubeh – Revoicing Iranian Folk Music in Brooklyn

Interview by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi 

Since early 2000 a talented diaspora of a number of Iranian-born musicians have been producing sumptuous sound landscapes here in New York that both incorporate tradition and go beyond it incorporating jazz, blues, alternative rock, chanson, flamenco, heavy metal and electronica.

Well known bands, such as HYPERNOVA and KIOSK moved to New York which was the right artistic location and space to make music without the pressure to get a permission from the Department of Culture in Tehran which required pre-approval of all public performances and CD releases.

KoubehOne of the newer bands coming out in 2019 is Koubeh based in Brooklyn, New York.

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Iranian New Music Series P.5 – Axiom of Choice

AXIOM OF CHOICEText by Dawoud Kringle

Axiom of Choice, a southern California based group who dares name themselves after a mathematical concept (i.e. an axiom of set theory equivalent to the statement that the Cartesian product of a collection of non-empty sets is non-empty) is someone to be reckoned with.

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Iranian New Music Series P. 4 – Hafiz Modizradeh

In Chromodal Discourse…

Hafez Modirzadeh

Photo by Walter Wagner

Text by Dawoud Kringle

The approach to improvisation that Ornette Coleman pioneered in the late 1950s and early 1960s rewrote the book on musical improvisation. However, Coleman’s paradigm shift was only the beginning. San Francisco based composer, saxophonist, and musical theorist Hafez Modirzadeh is among the forerunners of a significant transformation in improvised music, picking up where Coleman left off, and taking it into new places.

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New Iranian Music Series P. 3 – Fared Shafinury

Fared ShafinuriText by Dawoud Kringle

Austin, TX based composer, vocalist, poet, Persian setarist and multi-instrumentalist Fared Shafinury is one of the more iconic and unique figures among the Iranian-American diaspora, balancing two seemingly dissimilar cultures.

It has been said of him that he “effectively unearthed his ancestral roots in classical Persian music and poetry, as well as reinvigorating the ancient sound with a modern touch.” Shafinury’s music morphs between American folk, rock, blues, and the classical and folk of music Iran. His lyrics vacillate between Farsi and English.

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