Endless Vision, Hossein Alizadeh and Jivan Gasparyan, Hermes Records, 2004.

It is impossible to review a work by either {Hossein Alizadeh} or {Jivan Gasparyan} and not feel a sense of awe. Alizadeh is not only a true master of Persian traditional music, but also the most pioneering one. His many albums are testament to a life-long effort to incorporate new themes, breath new life, if you will, into a music that many believe has been stalling. Jivan Gasparyan reached world recognition after {Peter Gabriel} incorporated his beautiful, searing melodies into his score for the movie The Last Temptation of Christ (1989), an album that showed everyone else how seemingly unrelated music from around the world can fuse to create something brand new, unlike anything else, and yet, somehow, familiar.

This was before the terms world music or world fusion were invented. Now we have reached a point where there is hardly any musician who has not tried to incorporate some aspect of it into his or her music. Some have created instant classics. {Rabih Abu Khalil}, {Jan Garbarek}, {Ali Farka-Toure}, {Zakir Hussein}, {Ravi Shankar}, Axiom Of Choice, among many, many others, have done this very successfully. Like a stew that has been simmered to perfection, these artists have created masterpieces in which their varied ingredients have donated their flavor, without sacrificing their true identity, into creating a new language, a whole new medium for expression that is at once recognizable by people everywhere. As Rumi would say*:

I'm not me, you're not you, and you're not me;
And yet I'm me, you're you, and you are me.
Beauty of Khotan, I am this because of you:
Confused if I am you, or you are me.

World music - truly successful world music - creates not just new songs, but a completely new form of musical communication. Compare this to {Cheb Mami} singing a vocal line in {Sting}'s "Desert Rose." Is this also world music? Not really. Take out the part where Cheb Mami sings, and all that is left is Sting's regular flavor of jazz-inspired pop. It's still beautiful, nobody is arguing with that, but it's not world music, at least not like some of the other examples mentioned.

Certainly Endless Vision is a great album for lovers of Persian music. Mr. Alizadeh, with a depth and courage that is only his, has created a beautifully crafted masterpiece. He has integrated SHURANGIZ, an old Persian instrument that was on the verge of extinction, into his music, thus insuring its survival. He has tackled much more challenging poetry, requiring new rhythmic foundations. He has used his signature approach to singing that incorporates several voices at once, uncommon to the tradition of Persian music. All the musicians, especially Mr. Gasparyan, are fantastic. There are instances in which the DUDUK sits on top of the Persian backdrop perfectly, creating moments of sheer beauty.

But beautiful as Alizadeh's compositions and the sound of Mr. Gasparyan's instrument are, the fact remains that these master musicians are each doing their own thing in Endless Vision and we don't really see a meshing of the two cultures, creating a whole new musical language or vision. This becomes more obvious when we consider that the two only had a few days to rehearse before the 2004 concert at Nivaran Palace in Tehran.

This is a fantastic album of Persian music that continues Mr. Alizadeh's creative journey quite successfully. The addition of duduk played by Mr. Gasparyan and his two other companions, and the live-performance nature of the album, captured beautifully in recording, is all very nice. We can only hope to see a more collaborative approach between the two gentlemen in future, one that will bring to fruition a true fusion of these two similar and yet distinct music.

FOOTNOTE

* Mowlana Jalal-ed-Din Rumi, Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi. Ed. Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. Tehran: Amir Kabir Publising, 1988. Trans. Zara Houshmand at http://www.iranian.com/Arts/Rumi/1976.html.

SNIPPETS

1/ "Prandeh-ha" ("Birds"), Part I
2/ "Prandeh-ha" ("Birds"), Part II
3/ "Naghmeh-ha-ye Armani" ("Armenian Romances")
4/ "Sari Galin"

IMAGES

1/ Alizadeh & Gasparyan at the end of last summer's concert at Niavaran Palace
2/ Cover of Endless Vision, Hermes Records (www.hermesrecords.com), 2004
3/ Alizadeh, Gasparyan, Armen Ghazaryan, and Vazgen Markaryan at Niavaran Palace, summer 2003.