#4879, From the Soundcheck Podcast:Sheherazaad
From the Soundcheck Podcast, composer and vocalist Sheherazaad shapes South Asian poetry and music into elegant songs rich with storytelling. She and her ensemble play in-studio. Plus, listen to music from kamancheh player and bandleader Mehrnam Rastegari, vocalist Galeet Dardashti, and more.
The singer and songwriter Sheherazaad blends the rich tradition of poetry and music from South Asia with Western classical instruments and production techniques. Her new recording, Qasr, was produced by Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab, and it offers a subtly colored, moody collection of songs that, in the tradition of the old collection 1001 Nights, tell stories. Stories that conjure "real strains of displacement, the push and pull of diaspora, and the depravity of erasure and forgotten roots", (Erased Tapes). Sheherazaad and her ensemble, (which features Iranian kamancheh player Mehrnam Rastegari, cellist Jake Charkey, and bassist Sam Minaie)perform the music of her origins and weave stories, in-studio.
Also, listen to music by Mehrnam Rastegari on kamancheh as she leads her traditional Persian band – in a version of the Kurdish folk song "Shirin Shirin", based on the tale of the Armenian princess Shirin, who became Queen of Persia in the 7th century. Plus, music by vocalist and anthropologist Galeet Dardashti, whose latest recording is Monajat, a Persian word meaning an intimate dialogue with the Divine. The record is also a digital collaboration with the recorded voice of her grandfather Younes Dardashti, a master singer of Persian classical music in 1950s/60s Iran. Hear the title track from that record, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4879, From the Soundcheck Podcast:Sheherazaad (First aired 5/07/2024)
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Koshish [1:00]
RECORDING: Qasr
SOURCE: Erased Tapes
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Dhund Lo Mujhe [4:22]
RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Feb. 2024
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Khatam [4:42]
RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Feb. 2024
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Mashoor [4:30]
RECORDING: Qasr
SOURCE: Erased Tapes
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Koshish [3:22]
RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Feb. 2024
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sheherazaad
WORK: Lehja [4:40]
RECORDING: Qasr
SOURCE: Erased Tapes
INFO: https://sheherazaad.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Mehrnam Rastegari
WORK: Shirin Shirin [5:12]
RECORDING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FSZofWYJM
SOURCE/INFO: https://linktr.ee/mehrnamrastegari
ARTIST: Galeet Dardashti
WORK: Monajat [4:10]
RECORDING: Monajat
SOURCE/INFO: galeetdardashti.bandcamp.com/album/
ARTIST: Gaida
WORK: Bint Al Balad [5:12]
RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, March 2010
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: The song appears on Levantine Indulgence via Palmyra Records, available at AppleMusic and Amazon.com
