"What intrigues me most about the human voice, is its
ability to make all things transparent through its power of
transformation. The voice is not just a conduit for words. For me it is
like an abstract dream in which everything makes perfect sense."
-Azam Ali
It
feels perfectly appropriate to begin an article about Azam Ali and her
band, Niyaz, with a quote by the Iranian artist herself. Azam is the
woman behind the leading vocals for the choir-driven soundtrack in the
film 300. In an even more controversial move, she has recently
performed on the yet-unreleased mini-series called The Path to 9/11. As
with her artistry, Azam Ali is expansive in her business decisions.
It
was the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that set the course of Azam Ali’s
four-year-old life; it sent her defiant mother packing them off to
India. This is how Azam Ali came to be born in Tehran, Iran, and grew
up in Panchgani, India, a small town of a hill station in the state of
Maharashtra.
It was in this small town that Azam attended an
international co-educational boarding school for eleven years. Here she
became a sponge to all she saw and heard around her. Eventually, her
childhood in exile is what ultimately lead Azam to embrace the Indo
part of her Indo-European ancestry.
The school Azam attended
emphasized the importance of the arts and spirituality, and aimed,
through moral and academic excellence, to produce promoters of social
transformation imbued with the spirit of service to mankind. The
schools mission greatly paved Azam’s path to musical and
self-expression.
Azam and her mother moved to America in 1985,
when Azam was a teenager. Shortly after arriving in the U.S, it became
clear that she wanted to pursue a career in music. She’d fallen in love
with the Persian santour (hammered dulcimer).
Azam had often
sung at home and in school functions, without any particular interest
in becoming a vocalist. This was until she began studying the santour
under the guidance of Persian master Manoocher Sadeghi.
It was
Sadeghi who heard Azam singing by chance and convinced her that her
voice that had rare emotional quality which needed to be cultivated. It
was through his encouragement that Azam began to explore her voice,
which Billboard magazine would later describe as "a glorious,
unforgettable instrument."
Azam Ali currently lives in Los
Angeles with fellow Niyaz member and husband Loga Ramin Torkian. They
recently welcomed the birth of their first child.
NIYAZ
The
word niyaz means "yearning" in both Farsi, the main language of Iran
and Afghanistan, and Urdu, a major language of northern India and
Pakistan. Over the centuries, the cultures of Persia and India have
shared poetic, musical, and spiritual traditions.
Call it Sufi
music or World Fusion, but one thing is for sure, the band Niyaz is an
Iranian musical trio, whose debut album ranked #1 on world music charts
on iTunes, is often heard playing throughout yoga studios in America
and Europe, and made it to #4 on Billboard World charts as well as #1
on world music charts throughout Europe.
It is unmistakable that today Niyaz stands squarely in the center of the world music scene surrounded by loud accolades.
The
band was created in 2005 by DJ, programmer, and producer Carmen Rizzo;
vocalist and hammered dulcimer player Azam Ali, formerly of the group
Vas; and Loga Ramin Torkian, of the Iranian crossover group Axiom Of
Choice.
These three musical masters found common ground in Niyaz,
where the mystical poetry of Urdu and Persian Sufi poets of the 14th
and 15th century forms the lyrical framework of a wholly innovative art
form.
The band doesn’t mind if listeners aren’t fully aware of
the cultural significance of the music and lyrics either; their focus
goes beyond that. As Azam Ali points out, the sacred nature of the
texts makes them a surprisingly good fit for Western dance music. "The
common thread [when listening to Sufi, trance or dance songs] is
putting yourself in a higher state.”
"The steady rhythm of the
tabla blends naturally with the dance grooves,” Loga adds. “It just
makes sense. The goal is for the music to stand on its own in different
contexts."
A strong emphasis on composition draws out the deep
interconnectedness between the music of Iran and its neighboring
countries, which explains why some of the world’s most renown musicians
have played and recorded with Niyaz, including Ulas Ozdemir on baglama
& vocals (Turkey), Omer Avci on percussion (Turkey), Solar Nader on
tabla (Afghanistan), and Naser Musa on oud (Palestine/Israel).
Niyaz’s
most recent album, Nine Heavens, is split in two and released as a
double disc set. The first CD embodies the musicians’ original goal to
bridge the gap between the traditional and modern in nine intricately
carved original arrangements and compositions of traditional folk songs
and mystical Sufi poems from Iran, the Indian sub-continent and Turkey.
The second CD is a solely acoustic version of the former but features a
stronger emphasis on traditional acoustic instrumentation and more
layered percussions.
Nine Heavens begins with "Beni Beni," a
song which marries an 18th century Turkish Sufi poem to a traditional
Turkish folk song set over polished electronic beats and programming.
It is very much a self-conscious blend of Sufi mysticism and trance, as
it deftly adapts Persian, Turkish, and Indian folk songs and poetry,
with electronic instrumentation and programming.
"It's a modern
kind of Sufi music," the digital dervish explains. “Loga and I are both
very influenced by Turkish music.” And you can hear the kinship
between the two traditions in the layering of lutes, topped by the
kamman, a larger, lower-pitched version of the traditional Persian
fiddle.
In fact, two of the songs on Nine Heavens are poems by
Amir Khosrau Dehlavi, a 13th-century Persian mystic who was raised in
India, much like Azam. (The album title comes from his "Song of Nine
Heavens.") Amir Khosrau founded the style of Sufi music known as
Qawwali, made famous in the recent past by the great Pakistani singer
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Some say he invented the Indian tabla drums as
well. His poems, including "Molk-e-Divan" and "Sadrang," are in the
great tradition of Persian mystics like Rumi.
Both Niyaz's
Khosrau-inspired songs can be read either as love poetry or as
devotional songs to God. Of course, an English-speaking audience may
be more likely to respond to the songs' primal beats (Azam would
probably argue that both experiences are one and the same). One such
example is the song "Tamana," an 18th century Urdu poem that unfolds
slowly, very much in the tradition of a Sufi ghazal. The electronic
drones eventually build up to a Turkish cumbus, a type of lute, singing
over the steady backbeat pulse of merging tabla and programmed beats.
Nine
Heavens includes some very personal tracks for the band as well.
"Iman," is a lullaby and musical prayer written by Loga and Azam for
their infant son. "Feraghi – Song of Exile" is close to both émigrés’
hearts.
Niyaz recently returned to the states from a trip to
Turkey where they performed at Diyarbakir, a historical site,
inexplicably untouched by tourism. They’d been invited to perform by
Bejan Matur, a renowned poet and writer, who is very respected in
Turkey. This was the first official concert to ever take place in
Diyarbakir, and it marks Matur’s launch of an organization and his
focus on bringing music from various parts of the Middle East together
in Diyarbakir so as to inspire tourism, peace, magic, and of course,
more poetry.
Azam plans to return to Istanbul very soon to finish recording her solo album.
Azam
and Logo promise fans who may have missed their show at California
State University, Fullerton show on February 9th that they will be
returning to L.A and the Bay area for a series of show, before dropping
into Dubai and embarking on the lengthy European leg of their 2009
tour.
Throughout their busy schedule, Niyaz continues
conducting workshops to raise awareness of the contributions of
Iranians in the US and of Persian culture in general.
"Our
Iranian identity is important," Loga says. "On the first Niyaz album,
we were just trying to find our place here. Now, with this second
record, the Persian elements are used with more confidence."
And
it’s true. The song "Feraghi" uses a Persian 5-beat rhythm, which most
Americans will initially find awkward to dance to. But the blend of
traditional beats and digital rhythms is so deliciously seductive, no
one can hold back once the music starts.
