On An Overgrown Path

What seemed to threaten the fundamentalists most, reading between the lines of their rhetoric and behavior, was the sheer accessibility of western culture: the fact that everything a person could want, from consumer goods to emotional highs to sex to spirituality, was public and available to anyone. Nothing was hidden, nothing required serious effort to attain. In the West, anything that must be hidden is suspect; availability and honesty are interlinked. This clashes irreconcilably with Islam as it is practiced in the Middle East, where the things that are most precious, most perfect, and most holy are always hidden: the Kaaba, the faces of prophets and angels, a woman's body, Heaven. The fundamentalists, in their own way, were mourning the loss of legitimately beautiful ideas. They knew they could not make the ritualized, morally appraising culture of traditional Arab Islam - in which one must be worthy of truth, love and God to attain them - more attractive than the lifestyle e...

One day Lal Shahbaz was wandering in the desert with his friend Sheikh Bahi ud-Din Zakariya . It was winter, and evening time, so they began to build a fire to keep warm. They found some wood, but then they realised they had no fire. So Baha ud-Din suggested that Lal Shahbaz turn himself into a falcon and get fire from hell. Off he flew, but an hour later he came back empty-handed. "There is no fire in hell," he reported. "Everyone who goes there brings their own fire, and their own pain from this world." That Sartresque story is from William Dalrymple's new book Nine Lives, In Search of Sacred India . Lal Shabaz was a 13th century Afghan Sufi saint and contemporary of Mevlana Rumi . Innovative and independent French label Accords Croisés has just released Les Chantes Brulés, Hommage à Rūmī (Songs of Rebirth, Homage to Rumi) on which classical Persian singer Ali Reza Ghorbani performs his own settings of Rumi and other Sufi poets. In an excellent accompany...

The point of this story is this: why (when there are people prepared to do almost anything for a recording contract or a Queen Elizabeth Hall date) are we releasing this new Nick Drake album, and (if he wants to make another one) - the next? Because, quite simply we believe that Nick is a great talent. His first two albums haven't sold a shit. But, if we carry on releasing them, then maybe one day someone authoritative will stop, listen properly and agree with us. Then maybe a lot more people will get to hear Nick Drake's incredible songs and guitar playing. And maybe they'll buy a lot of his albums, and fulfill our faith in Nick's promise. Then. Then we'll have done our job. That is how Dave Sandison , the press officer for Island Records, signed off the Melody Maker release advertisement for Nick Drake's Pink Moon album in February 1971. Sadly, there were no more Nick Drake albums ; but two decades after Nick's tragically early death in 1974 his record la...

There is some nice chewy music on Future Radio over Christmas. That is me above putting together My World of Music , a two hour special of music from different cultures and traditions around the world which is being broadcast by Future Radio at 4.00pm UK time on December 26th on a local FM frequency and over the internet . A podcast of the programme will be available a few days after broadcast. Here is the playlist together with links to related articles On An Overgrown Path : 1 - Titi Robin (guitar) and Faiz Ali Faiz (voice), Lage Jiya from Jaadu Magic : Accords Croisés AC130 2 - Jean-Rodolpe Kars (piano), Beloved of the Soul from Musique Juive : Editions de l’Emmanuel CDD0148 5.37 3 - Keyvan Chemirani (Iranian percussion) and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Ma maison se trouve sur le chemin emprunté par mon Coeur from Battements au Coeur de l’Orient (Percussion at the heart of the Orient): Accords Croisés AC121 4 - Driss el Maloumi (oud), Rajery (Madagaskan bamboo tubu...

No, not under ‘Stravinsky’ and not even under ‘Classical’. L’Oiseau de Feu (Firebird) is a CD of improvised music and recitations for ney, santour, Eastern percussion, viole de gambe and voice inspired by texts from Sufi poets and Christian mystics. There is not a note of Stravinsky's music on the disc, but there is a connection: his Firebird ballet has its roots in Russian folklore and the legendary bird also appears as the simorgh in Persian mythology , notably in the Farid ud-Din Attar's Sufi masterpiece Conference of the Birds . Hence the title of the CD. This new release from serial innovators Accords Croisés - sample it here - challenges conventions beyond that of the Firebird as an exclusively Stravinsky property. With its juxtaposition of viol and traditional Persian instruments it challenges an even more rigid convention - the definition of classical music. Despite the presence of a Western classical instrument played by early music specialist Jonathan Dunford...

Things Gnostic, Coptic, Hermetic and Sufi take me to Egypt in the summer and I have been impressed by a new Naxos CD of music by the Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz who was born in Egypt in 1985 and studied with György Ligeti. The title work Native Informant – Sonata for Solo Violin is structured around a lament for the victims of the 2011/12 Egyptian revolution, while Jebel Lebnan for wind quintet chronicles the impact of the Lebanese civil war. Mohammed Fairouz’s rare commitment to relevance in contemporary music makes this new release notable, the incontestable merit of his music makes it doubly notable. Music and activism are closely linked in Egypt, and the princess of song Oum Kalsoum (??-1975) played an important role in the evolution of Egyptian nationalism. Arabic song is an important cultural tradition – three million people lined the streets of Cairo for Oum Kalsoum’s funeral – yet it is little appreciated in the West. Hopefully Tunisian singer Dorsaf Hamndani...

Sirventès was the poetic art that evolved in the País d'Òc region of France in the thirteenth century to protest against the violence of the times, the stupidity of powerful people and the decline of ethics. In an early expression of the madness of crowds, the Catholic Church had mounted the Albigensian Crusade against Cathars in Occitania , and in 1209, 20,000 inhabitants of Béziers were massacred by Crusaders on the pretext that the town harboured 230 Cathar heretics. The art of the troubadors from Occitania is much celebrated, but the dissent of Sirventès - which is an offshoot from the troubadors - is almost unknown. So an eponymous new CD from the maverick Accords Croisés label showcasing the art of Sirventès is particularly welcome. The troubadors mixed fealty to the established Catholic Church with influences from the Moorish culture of Spain, and in his Oxford Addresses on Poetry Robert Graves suggests that the troubadours' real debt was to Sufism . The infl...

'On stage I have always been surrounded by French and Gypsy musicians as well as musicians from the Eastern nations - because this mix is my universe, my world and it is the only thing which brings me the stability I need in order to live and to survive, like the balance that is found in the bosom of a large and closely-knit family. Among us there are no castes and when the time comes for singing and breaking bread, the time for dancing, the people becomes king'. As my seventh year of blogging approaches I find myself less and less interested in rumours about the next career move of a jet set conductor or the latest hyperbole lavished by the twittering classes on last night's BBC Prom. Which is just fine; celebrity classical music is well served elsewhere leaving me to find sustenance where the people rather than personalities are king. Which brings me to the musician who supplied my opening quote. Titi Robin, seen in my first two photos with 'the gypsy queen of Ra...

When the Soviet invasion started, Radio Kaboul continued to function as did the music school where I was teaching. The government in power exhorted the singers to interpret communist revolutionary songs. In 1992, after the departure of the Soviets and the arrival of the Mujahiddins, the music school was closed and all the instruments confiscated. The University of Fine Arts was closed as well. At the radio all the female artists were fired. With the Talibans this death penalty for cultural life as a whole was reinforced. They strictly forbid singing, even by men, as well as the instruments. Only the religous a capella singing was authorized. I left the country six months after the arrival of the Mujahiddins, when Rābani was president. The greatest tragedy in my life was the closing of the musical lyceum. I am the only surviving teacher, the others died in exile or in the country in poverty. When my brother, Ibrahim Nassim, was forbidden to broadcast his songs, he died from sadness, l...

Most Sufis believe that the great religions and mystical traditions of the world share the same essential Truth. The various prophets and spiritual teachers are like the light bulbs that illuminate a room. The bulbs are different, but the current comes from one source, which is God. It is the same light; each of the individual bulbs receives electricity from a single source. The quality of the light is always basically the same, and so is the original source - from Essential Sufism . Although Sufism is technically an esoteric branch of Islam it has also fascinated great minds from other cultures including the Catholic mystic Thomas Merton . My header photo shows Titi Robin (right) and Faiz Ali Faiz (left) whose new album Jaadu Magic sets Sufi poetry. Faiz Ali Faiz was born in Pakistan and trained in Qawwali , a form of Sufi devotional music. Titi (Thierry) Robin is a French gypsy guitarist whose biography says - ...has explored various streams following his destiny East, through...

Based on texts both praising God and the Prophet that become hymns to tolerance in a world of brutality as well as invocations of patron saints and healers called upon to give us their blessing, this recording is presented as a symbol and a synthesis between the most treasured past and the most daring creativity. From the notes for Accords Croisés new album from Moroccan master gnawa Hamid El Kasri and Algerian jazz-world drummer Karim Ziad . Yobadi is a blend of traditional gnawa, reggae and jazz delivered by a band of invited musicians whose instruments range from the traditional gumbri to electric guitar and synthesizer. Check the video below to sample how this Sufi inspired music connects with the collective consciousness : Yobadi follows in the gnawa diffusion tradition whose advocates number Jimi Hendrix , Randy Weston , Jimmy Page , Robert Plant , Sapho , Brian Jones , Norwegian hip-hop group Imhotep and the eponymous Gnawa Diffusion . As well as being an ace drummer Yoba...

This awful business of making others just like oneself so that one is thereby “justified” and under no obligation to change himself. What a terrible thing this can be. The source of how many sicknesses in the world. Thomas Merton expressed those thoughts in a letter to the Ceylonese philosopher and art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy in 1961, and the quote comes from the recommended compendium Merton & Sufism . I have to confess to not being a huge fan of Yo Yo Ma, but his recent Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at Washington, D.C.'s chimed with the view of Thomas Merton and also with the theme of many posts On An Overgrown Path . In the lecture Yo Yo Ma spoke of “…an edge effect… where those of varied backgrounds come together in a zone of transition; a region of less structure, more diversity and more possibility”. The important point is that Yo Yo Ma is not just calling for more diversity , but he is also calling for less structure and more possibility . It i...

Macedonian Romani musician and humanitarian Esma Redzepova is seen here with French gypsy guitarist Titi Robin. The photo comes from the 2007 Accords Croisés album Esma - My Story which combines new recordings and archive tracks in an invaluable musical portrait of the Balkan 'queen of the gypsies'. Born in 1943 in Skopje, Yugoslavia Esma Redzepova Teodosievska has combined a very successful musical career with extensive humanitarian work and has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize . Most Roma have converted to the religions of the countries in which they now live, but their formal religious affiliation is often supplemented by traditional Roma beliefs. When the Roma arrived in Europe in the 15th century they brought with them the tradition of worshipping the Goddess Kali and this still finds expression in the annual gypsy pilgrimage to Les Saintes Maries de la Mer in France. Titi Robin's unique brand of syncretic music develops this theme in his concept alb...

'A state-imposed metaphysic or religion should be opposed, if necessary at pistol-point. We must fight for variety if we fight at all. The uniform is as dull as a sculptured egg' - Lawrence Durrell writing in The Alexandria Quartet Photo was taken a few weeks ago in the Place Novembre 16 , Marrakech, Morocco. Those are police vans in the right of the picture and the soundtrack comes from beyond the thought police - it is Gnawa Home Songs which was recorded in the holy village of Tamesloht outside Marrakech. As Western collective culture repeatedly reinvents the sculptured egg the usual excellent documentation for this Accords Croisés CD explains how the gnawa Sufi brotherhood's universal blues celebrate variety: ''Passers on', the gnawa are also like tight-rope walkers. Music and therapy, science and religion, theatre "being lived" and theatre "being played" (to paraphrase Michel Leiris referring to Gondar ), the individual and the col...

'For all their religious orthodoxy and outward austerity, the people of Fez are not ashamed to be hedonists. They love the sound of the fountain splashing in the courtyard; on the coals of their braziers they sprinkle sandalwood and benzoin; they have a passion for sitting on a high spot of ground at twilight and watching the slow change of light, color and form in the landscape. Outside the ramparts are innumerable orchards, delightful little wildernesses of canebrake, where olive and fig trees abound. It is the custom of families to be out there on a late afternoon with their rugs, braziers and tea equipment. One discovers groups of such picnickers in the most secluded corners of the countryside, particularly on the northern slopes above the valley. Not long ago on one of my walks I came across a family spread out in the long grass. They were sitting quietly on their reed mats, but something in their collective attitude made me stop and observe them more closely. Then I saw tha...

On stage I have always been surrounded by French and Gypsy musicians as well as musicians from the Eastern nations - because this mix is my universe, my world and it is the only thing which brings me the stability I need in order to live and to survive, like the balance that is found in the bosom of a large and closely-knit family. Among us there are no castes and when the time comes for singing and breaking bread, the time for dancing, the people becomes king'. As my seventh year of blogging approaches I find myself less and less interested in rumours about the next career move of a jet set conductor or the latest hyperbole lavished by the twittering classes on last night's BBC Prom . Which is just fine; celebrity classical music is well served elsewhere leaving me to find sustenance where people rather than personalities are what really matters. Which brings me to the musician who supplied my opening quote. Titi Robin, seen in my first two photos with 'the gypsy quee...