Credits to
AmbroseBierce (Ripper & Uploader) Rahim Alhaj - oud Souhail Kaspar - percussion
The last century has visited more than its share of tragedy and suffering upon Armenia, Iraq and Iran, and it would be easy to romanticize the musical heritage of the region. The world-music panel at the January 2007 Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference in New York attracted a striking mix of people, among them a young Iraqi exile who related the difficulties he confronts in seeking to study Iraqi classical music with elderly tradition bearers, and spoke passionately to the audience about the music's tenuous future in his homeland and abroad. His concerns are certainly borne out by recent history in Iraq, although the future of Iraqi music may not be quite as bleak as he seemed to suggest. Consider the work of another Iraqi exile, Rahim Alhaj, who studied oud in Baghdad with Salim Abdul Kareem and Munir Bashir (1930-1997), the latter widely regarded as the most important oud player of the contemporary era, as a master of Iraqi maqam (roughly, "mode"). In Iraq, "maqam" refers to a sense of melodic movement and structure; to a specifically Iraqi vocal tradition; and to the concept of a spiritual station. Shortly after graduating with honors from the Baghdad Conservatory of Fine Arts (1990), Alhaj fled Iraq, dogged by the Hussein regime. He lived for a decade in Syria and Jordan before gaining asylum in the United States in 2000; Alhaj now resides in Albuquerque. On the strength of When the Soul Is Settled, Rahim Alhaj is a worthy successor to Bashir. The repertoire consists of nine extended taqsim ("improvised") maqamat in pan-Iraqi style. The music represents a continuum that extends from North Africa into the Levant and eastward into Central Asia. Alhaj is ably accompanied by Lebanese master percussionist Souhail Kaspar, trained at the Conservatory of Traditional Arabic Music, Aleppo, Syria, and now resident in Los Angeles. The extensive notes (with musical transcriptions, bibliography and discography) are in English and Arabic.
As received from his teachers and transformed by his considerable musical gifts and life experience, Rahim Alhaj carries on a significant strand of Iraqi musical tradition toward future generations—in his own way, in his own time. Alhaj studied music in Baghdad with Munir Bashir and other great teacher-performers. His extended improvisations on the oud, accompanied on Near Eastern percussion by Souhail Kaspar, include uniquely Iraqi pieces. Together they represent a proud tradition's meeting with modernity. Extensive bilingual notes, 32-page booklet. 73 minutes. Rahim Alhaj is a master of the oud (Arabic lute). All but one of the nine tracks span between 7-11 minutes. Alhaj's original taqsim (instrumental improvisations) provide a contemporary interpretation of maqams (the unique pitches on the Arabic musical scale along with their melodic movement). Alhaj's material is also rooted in and derived from this Iraqi musical tradition. For example, "Taqsim Maqam Hijaz" includes a rendition of the famous Iraqi song "Atop the Palm Tree." In fact, each piece includes improvisation followed by a famous song. While it might have been more interesting for some of the pieces to be arranged with a fuller maqam ensemble sound of spike fiddle (joza) and dulcimer (santur) too, some of the cuts do feature percussionist Souhail Kaspar plays goblet drums (tablah, dumbak) and small tambourine (riqq). Apparently, he didn't use a frame drum (daf) that maqam ensembles sometimes include. In "Taqsim Maqam Sika" and "Taqsim Maqam Hijaz," the riqq (or daff) makes its most prominent appearance and provides for a colorful expression in that piece. Born in Lebanon, Kaspar studied music in Syria but now makes his home in Los Angeles. While the 32-page CD booklet could have said more about Kaspar's instruments, the bilingual musical explanations for each track are educational. A prodigy who began playing oud at age nine, Rahim Alhaj subsequently graduated from Baghdad Conservatory in 1990. He also holds a degree in Arabic Literature. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Alhaj's activism against the Saddam Hussein regime led to is forced move to Jordan and Syria. The political refugee relocated to the U.S. in 2000 and now lives in Albuquerque, N.M. There, he won the 2003 Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for Excellence in Music. On this album (his fourth overall), the accomplished and proficient musician says that the intent of each piece is to reflect the maqam tradition and, in doing so, to settle the soul. He does a fine job of introducing us to the musical and aesthetic of the Iraqi style. Rahim's music has both delicate and forceful moments. Its full-bodied essence speaks forcefully as he combines traditional Iraqi maqams with more contemporary inspiration and insight. While this kind of improvisational global sound may be novel to many westerners' ears, its strength is its creativity and imagination that take us on an impressive 73-minute atmospheric journey. His closing number, "Taqsim Maqam Saba" is an emotional expression of sorrow and grief. There also seems to be a prevalent thread in his compositions for peace, hope, optimism and compassion in the future. Undoubtedly, Rahim misses his homeland, but he also makes soul-settling and cathartic musical statements about his musical rejuvenation and personal renewal in the United States. - Joe Ross Oud soloist and composer Rahim Alhaj has carried his (roughly) five-thousand-year-old music tradition more than seven thousand miles, from his birthplace in Baghdad to his current home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The political map of Iraq’s boundaries today include the regions where ancient Ur, Sumer, and Babylon arose, flourished, and finally fell. Indeed, Baghdad occupies one of the oldest continually inhabited spots on Earth, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Scholars believe that the instrument Alhaj plays, a short-necked Arabian lute called the oud (Arabic: al 'ud), originated in that region along with cities, the cultivation of food crops, and one of the very earliest written languages. Alhaj was born in Baghdad, and he began playing oud at age nine. He performed his first solo concerts when he was fourteen, by which time his passion and talent for music already were obvious. Alhaj attended the Baghdad Conservatory of Fine Arts’ six-year program beginning in 1984, studying under Munir Bashir, a master teacher and among the best-known oud players of the 20th century. Alhaj also studied with the influential composer and oud player Salim Abdul Kareem and composer Jamil Bashir, Munir's brother. He graduated with honors and a degree in music composition, and picked up another degree in Arabic literature from Al Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad. But life under Saddam Hussein’s rule was oppressive. Young Alhaj not only resolutely refused to join the ruler's Baath party, even though this severely limited his professional opportunities, and instead was active in the artistic resistance, opposing the regime and writing protest songs. For that he twice landed in prison in the latter half of the 1980s, once for a year and a half, where he suffered painful and regular beatings by his jailors. Fearing for her son’s life, his mother raised tens of thousands of dollars shortly after the first Gulf War (1991) to obtain false identity papers and help him leave his native land. Alhaj recounts that she sold virtually everything she had to pay his way to freedom. He saw her alive only once more, when he visited his homeland in 2004 for the first time in thirteen years. Interviewed on USA’s National Public Radio late in 2006, he recalled: "I had never been away [from home] until I left Iraq, actually. When I crossed the border between Iraq and Jordan, they took my instrument from me. And this is the saddest moment in my entire life.... [At that moment] I had a choice between: leave my instrument or have life. I had to leave. And so I left Iraq and left my instrument. And now I have a beautiful, beautiful oud from Iraq." According to an article in Smithsonian magazine in November 2006, the oud he plays today was made by a childhood friend, Farhan Hassn, who still lives in Iraq. The face of the instrument is inlaid with images of two homing pigeons, such as Alhaj and Hassn raised in Baghdad when they were boys. Today, Alhaj raises homing pigeons in his backyard. Alhaj lived in Jordan for three years, then moved to Syria, where he met and married Nada Kherbik. They came to the United States under a UN refugee resettlement program in 2000 and made a home for themselves in Albuquerque. Along with the general devastation he witnessed during his 2004 visit were personal losses. His father had passed away in the intervening years and the music conservatory— his alma mater— was empty, burned and silent. Alhaj is both composer and instrumentalist, performing concerts solo concerts throughout North America, in the Near East and Western Europe. Recently he has performed his own compositions with several string quartets and a symphony orchestra, with extensive tours planned in 2008 and beyond. Rahim Alhaj is one of a very few professional oudists actively re-vitalizing and thereby preserving the Iraqi art music tradition in our time. His Smithsonian CD was released in October 2006 and is entitled When the Soul Is Settled: Music of Iraq. He is accompanied on the disc by Souhail Kaspar, a Lebanese-born master percussionist now based in California, Mr. Alhaj's first CD, The Second Baghdad ( 2002) and the next, Iraqi Music in a Time of War ( 2003), are both available on VoxLox Records. The 3rd release was a collaboration with the Saddaqa String quartet, entitled Friendship: Oud/String Quartet Ensemble ( 2005), Fast Horse Recordings.
Touching Hearts with Ancient Music, Newly Formed Bill Nevins talks with Iraqi composer and musician Rahim Al Haj "Music is like a clock, it moves around in a circle," declares oud master Rahim Al Haj, sipping tea on the patio of an Albuquerque coffee shop. Al Haj is an innovative musician, and his own life has been formed by cycles of music, indeed. He has travelled in his person and in his music from his homeland into exile and then back home again as a true messenger of hope. A Baghdad native and a serious student of the classical and folk music of his native Iraq, he was imprisoned twice by the regime of Saddam Hussein, in part for refusing to compose musical tributes to that regime's military adventures during the 1980s. His life came under threat by the Saddam regime at the time of the First Gulf War. With great difficulty, Al Haj escaped in 1991, eventually making his way as a political refugee via Syria and Lebanon to New Mexico in 2000. Here, in relative poverty, he began the long process of learning English, adjusting to a very different culture, and re-establishing himself as a musical authority, performer and composer. His work has been marked by a thematic dedication to principles of peace and reconciliation in the form of wordless musical "poems" and by formal innovation on the ancient styles of the Iraqi maqam. Now he lectures at the University of New Mexico and he is in demand for performances nationally and internationally, with several acclaimed albums to his credit. Rahim Al Haj performed in June, 2006 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. for the release of his latest CD, When the Soul Is Settled:Music of Iraq, which features the percussion playing of Souhail Kaspar (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). His earlier CDs are: Friendship: Oud/String Quartet Ensemble (2005), Iraqi Music in a Time of War (2003) and The Second Baghdad (2002). During the past three years, Rahim Al Haj has performed concerts across the USA, in Europe and throughout the Arab nations of Africa and the Middle East. This ongoing musical tour has included a bittersweet return to his homeland, where Al Haj played his music for long-missed relatives and friends and brought charitable assistance to children hurt by the continuing war. While he notes that the fall of Saddam has been a good thing for Iraq, he is an outspoken opponent of the current war, calling for peace and healing. The musical circle has turned for Rahim Al Haj, and turned well. He has had to work to make that happen, and it has not been easy. Rahim recently talked with this reporter about music, culture and his own experiences. Rahim objects to the common use of the term "world music", declaring, "There is nothing that is really Western or Eastern music--we made that all up. What is so-called "world music"? That completely depends on your perspective, where you are located yourself. What is exotic in one place is commonplace or traditional in another. There is only the world, and there is only music." A proponent and defender of musical traditions, at the same time that he is an innovator, Rahim is not a fan of all popular music. He explains, "Sometimes it seems that bad music dominates worldwide. Computer music, for instance, is about nothing--it is nothing! This is because people are not educated about their own musical traditions. But really, all music is linked, and can be the thing that brings us together. I've heard Lebanese singers, for example, borrow rhythms from Europe and translate them to Arabic song, and I have seen African rhythms brought into Iraqi music. " Rahim opposes the use of music to build war enthusiasm, yet he recounts how music itself has sometimes transcended propagandistic expropriation, as happened in Iraq, "Sometimes good music can even emerge from a very bad situation. In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq War, we listened in Iraq only to war music. I once counted 669 songs about Sadam Hussein. A song writer whom I greatly admired, Kazem Al Sahar, a very skilled classical composer, recorded one himself in order to stay out of jail, but he did a marvelous job with the melody. People sang and loved it for its musical beauty. The music reached past the official subject, to people's hearts. " Kazem Al Sahar now lives in Canada and is one of the more famous Arabic singers in the world. His own music is an example of beauty which comes, ironically, out of extreme adversity. Rahim replies, "Well, the way to reach people is through stories, from the heart. I don't use lyrics in my compositions--which in itself is a radical change from the Iraqi tradition of the oud accompanying lyrics--but I do talk before performing. I tell stories to help people put the music into words. For example, when my songs are about horses running, or trees, I tell the audiences about those images from Iraq which I have seen and loved. I am giving them an invitation to think about a part of the world that they may hear about, but that they don't know about. " Rahim's instrument, the oud, has a 5,000 year history, though it is still often seen as exotic in America. Rahim comments, "People are not familiar with the oud in America, though it is the ancestor of guitars and other stringed instruments. The oud would be the central instrument in an Arabic orchestra traditionally, like the piano. Perhaps the exotic perception here derives from the fact that the quartertone, or microtone, used in our music does not exist in Western music." Rahim strives to bridge the gap between western audiences and Arab musical tradition, working with a string quartet and composing works for oud and orchestra. "I think of it as a conversation between East and West, a dialogue," he says. Along with his political activity, Rahim's music got him deep trouble with the Saddam Hussein government. With a pained expression, he recalls the experience."I composed a piece, titled 'Why?', which was based on a poem by a longtime friend who lost his legs in the Iran-Iraq War. The song talked about the tense, anxious time of that long war, especially for young people subject to the draft. It asked questions such as about 'Why the poor and the rich?' and 'Why the healthy and the wounded and sick?' The song used the name of Ali, the cousin of Mohammed, but it really criticized Saddam and the situation of injustice in Iraq at that time. 'Why?' became very famous in Iraq. It touched people's sensibilities and it gave them comfort. It was a curse on Saddam, but not by direct name. The song became so widely known and sung that most people did not know who wrote it. It became very effective." Rahim's life was threatened and to survive he had to leave Iraq clandestinely, as a political refugee. Over several years he made his way through Syria and Jordan and eventually settled in New Mexico. He details that odyssey: "Catholic Charities sponsored my coming here as a political refugee, following my appeal to the UN in Jordan. Albuquerque was chosen by the UN as my destination because of the similarity of climate,a desert, to Iraq, and because New Mexico was thought of as a center of art and culture. When I left Iraq in 1991, I had to use false documents to get out. My mom sold everything to buy them and to bribe somebody to get me out. I had been imprisoned twice and tortured because I was involved in the democratic resistance to the regime. " "They took away my oud at the border. That was the saddest moment of my life. I had had that instrument since I was nine, and I literally slept with it. That was very painful. I am happy to say that I have four or five ouds now." Rahim's initial adjustment to life in America was not easy, as he recounts: "I knew no English. I learned from reading Nietzsche because I heard from a friend that the best way to learn a language is to choose a book that you love in your own language. So I started speaking English in Albuquerque by quoting Nietsche in English translation. Then I went to the local community college to try to learn more English. Catholic Charities found me a job, at MCDonald's. I did not at first understand and I thought they wanted me to play background music for diners in a restaurant. So, I tried to politely explain that my music is really not suitable for dining. When the caseworker told me that I would be a dishwasher, I lost it. I threw every bad English word I knew at him." "Instead of that, I worked as a security guard for $6 an hour, but that was not going to pay back the money that I owed Catholic Charities for my passage here. So, I rented a hall at the University of New Mexico myself, and a friend helped me put up hand drawn flyers announcing an oud concert, my first in America." "The local newspaper gave advance notices. The concert was sold out! In the following few months, I was invited to give concerts at The Outpost and other New Mexico music venues, and not long after I found myself touring the country with concerts." Rahim explains how, in 2004, he finally managed to return to visit his family and even to perform his music in Iraq: "The actress Ali McGraw came up to me at a concert in Santa Fe and introduced herself. I had seen her in Love Story--it was the first movie I cried at. We became good friends, and she helped make arrangements for me to go back and forth to Iraq. My mother and Ali have exchanged gifts. She is a very good person. In Baghdad, I played for my family by kerosene lamps; there was no electricity. It had been thirteen years since I had seen them." Asked what is the primary message of his music, Rahim responds thoughtfully, "Peace and compassion and love. Those three concepts are in the music, and the drive is to learn, to understand, though not to know." Rahim Al Haj has spoken out publicly against the present war in Iraq. Asked about how his music relates to the present world political situation, Rahim smiles slightly and answers, "The music energizes people. It may influence them, and they may take action. The music contains the drive for the message of peace and compassion and love. The music should be involved with real life, we should talk about important matters. In Iraq right now, as in most of the world,what is vital is what we can find in that brings us together, not so much that tears us apart. I try to talk about these things, about the common links between us all, at my concerts, not just provide entertainment."
Rahim AlHaj is an Iraqi oud musician and composer. He was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (an Arabic lute) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud. Rahim studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He also holds a degree in Arabic literature from Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Mr. AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his political activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the U.S. in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ever since. Rahim AlHaj has performed all over the world, on tour with Munir Bashir, his teacher, as well as solo and with his string quartet project, including numerous concerts in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, and France and hundreds of concerts in the United States. Mr. AlHaj has released several recordings. The Second Baghdad, released in 2002, and Iraqi Music in a Time of War, released in 2003, were both produced by VoxLox record label. His East meets West CD entitled Friendship (Rahim AlHaj, Oud & Sadaqa Quartet) was released in December 2005 by Fast Horse Recordings. His When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, produced by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, was released in June 2006, and an oud and sarod CD with Amjad Ali Khan will be released later in the year. AlHaj's music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams with contemporary styling and influence. His compositions are about the experience of exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country. He is one of the true oud masters from Iraq. Rahim says that "my music invites the listener to discover the true spirit of the musician." His compositions are about loss, hope, freedom, and longing. His songs establish new concepts without altering the foundation of the traditional Iraqi School of oud based in Baghdad.
Rahim AlHaj, virtuoso oud musician and composer, was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (the grandfather of all stringed instruments) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud. Mr. Alhaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He also holds a degree in Arabic Literature from Mustunsariya University in Baghdad. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Mr. AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the US in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, NM ever since. Rahim AlHaj has performed hundreds of concerts all over the world, on tour with Munir Bashir, as well as solo and with his string quartet, including in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Rahim’s music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams with contemporary styling and influence. His compositions are about the experience of exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country. His songs establish new concepts without altering the foundation of the traditional Iraqi School of Oud. Mr. AlHaj currently has four CDs. His latest, When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, produced by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings was released in June 2006 at a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Don Heckman, reviewing the CD for the Los Angeles Times, wrote: “Alhaj's spontaneous inventions are constantly fascinating — a convincing affirmation of the rich culture of an embattled area of the world." (January 7, 2007). Friendship: Oud and Sadaqa String Quartet, a unique musical collaboration between East and West, was released in December 2005 on Fast Horse Recordings label and received two Grammy nominations. The Second Baghdad, (2002) and Iraqi Music in a Time of War, (2003) are both produced by VoxLox Records. His plans for 2007 CD releases include Home Again, touching and evocative original compositions portraying his trip to Iraq after 13 years in exile and a flamenco guitar/oud CD with Ottmar Liebert, Jon Gagan and Barrett Martin. Rahim won the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award 2003 for Excellence in Music and was dubbed: “The Prophet with an Oud” by a music reviewer at the College of William and Mary. There have been a number of recent national articles about his life and musical message including in the Smithsonian Magazine (November 2006), Time Out New York Magazine, (December 13, 2006), NPR All Things Considered feature interview, (December 2006), Los Angeles Times Music Review (January 7, 2007), Global Rhythm (January 2007),Times of London (December 2006), Village Voice Top Picks for 2006 and CMJ’s New World Top Ten (February 2007) and a Reuter’s International News article. Mr. AlHaj’s CD’s have become best sellers and are frequently featured on national radio shows and movies worldwide, including the BBC, NPR All Things Considered, ABC National Radio Australia, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now and NPR’s Studio 360.
More information about the artist, including concert dates and how to get his recordings, is available online:
Touching Hearts with Ancient Music, Newly Formed Bill Nevins talks with Iraqi composer and musician Rahim Al Haj 320 kbps, including full booklet scan
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| MP3 320 kbps | Incl. Covers | 525 MB | TRACK LISTINGS Disc: 1 [01].More Than I Can Say (Saxophone) [02].La Paloma (Guitar) [03].Rain Star (Piano) [04].Right Here Waiting For You (Flute) [05].Conquest (Saxophone) [06].Oh Carol (Saxophone) [07].Everything I do,I Do It For You (Guitar) [08].Can You Feel The Love Tonight (Flute) [09].Les Premiers Sourires De Vanessa (Piano) [10].My Heart Will Go On (Flute) [11].Love Story (Guitar) [12].I Will Always Love You (Flute) [13].Dolannes Melody (Piano) [14].Jasmine Flower (Saxophone) [15].(Saxophone) [16].Quelquse Notes Poan Anna (Guitar) [17].Unchained Melody (Flute) [18].Ballade For Adeline (Piano) [19].Hotel Califonia (Saxophone) [20].Moon River (Violin & Guitar) Download HERE Download HERE Disc: 2 [01].Spring Breeze (Saxophone) [02].Love Follow Us (Piano) ***** [03].Moon River (Saxophone) [04].Endless Love (Guitar) [05].The Sound Of Silence (Flute) [06].Sentimenal (Saxophone) [07].Flower Heart (Piano) [08].The Lonely Shephard (Saxophone) [09].End Of Road (Guitar) [10].Woman In Love (Flute) [11].Stranger In The Shore (Saxophone) [12].I Will Always Love You (Piano) [13].For Elise (Saxophone) [14].Scarborough Fair (Guitar) [15].Yesterday Once More (Flute) [16].Forever In Love (Saxophone) [17].Love Like A Tide (Piano) [18].Auld Lang Syne (Saxophone) [19].Summer Kisses,Summer Tears (Guitar) [20]. Sailing (Flute) Download HERE Download HERE Disc 3 [01].All Out Of Love (Piano) [02].Love Is Blue (Piano) [03].Green Sleeves (Saxophone) [04].It Never Rains In Southern California (Trumpet) [05].Going Home (Saxophone) [06].For Elise (Piano) [07].Time To Say Goodbye (Flute) [08]How Do I Live (Guitar) [09].Kiss From Rose (Guitar) [10].Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Flute) [11].A Comme Amour (Piano) [12].No Matter What (Saxophone) [13]. Speaking Softly Love (Violin & Guitar) [14].Sad Movies (Saxophone) [15].Sha La La (Saxophone) [16].Casablanca (Guitar) [17].Big Big World (Flute) [18].Souvenirs Denfance (Piano) [19].As Long As You Love Me (Saxophone) [20].Edelweiss (Violin) Download HERE Download HERE
