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Love Songs and dances Type-setter: Issa MUSIC OF KURDISTAN - Vol. 2 Like the Arab musicians, the Kurdish (but also Armenian, Assyro-Chaldéens, and even the Azeris) musicians use quarter tones (vol. 1 AAA 127). In fact, the intervals used by Kurdish musicians continue to show slight variations from one maqam to another, one region to another, and sometimes ... from one musician to another... both in classical and popular music. In the particular case of the Kurds, the natural variations between regions were influenced by the various cultural environments, and thus Kurds today use intervals fairly close to those of the popular music of the countries where they live. From which we enter the area of "flavour"... It is undeniable that Kurdish musicians prefer some maqam-s, (in particular the husseyni), and that their manner of interpreting them is particularly recognizable. However, it is not enough to limit oneself to distinguishing possible technical differences between the ways in which the Kurds, the Arabs, the Turks or the Armenians interpret this or that maqam... It would be more relevant, for anyone seeking to distinguish respective particularities of peoples living so close to one another, to be aware that Kurdish musical style is only one element in an overall collective "flavour". This characteristic "flavour" is surprising in that it persists in the midst of other populations who also have their own recognizable "flavours", in fields as varied as written or oral literature, clothing, carpet patterns, and ... cooking ... For example, this particular "flavour", despite the prohibition on using their language in Turkey, is, nevertheless, always identifiable in the songs of Kurdish troubadours, the dengbêj, even though they are only allowed to sing in Turkish ... Thus, these distinct "flavours" are expressed through the specific way these neighbouring populations use maqam-s, instruments, even poetic images, however identical they may be. There are nevertheless forms of sung poetry specific to the Kurds, the ser-s (pronounced shair), in which the improvised words are alternately declaimed and sung. But there is, especially, whatever the type of song, a freedom of tone which, from mocking criticism of a tactless friend, to the very frank description of the charms of some village belle, very often ignores the prejudices and proprieties of the Middle East... Love songs are also greatly appreciated by this people who, from young girls to old men, find them a means of expressing (or remembering) their secret feelings... Whence the appreciation of a young virtuoso’s talent: Issa... When the children sing and dance with their elders at weddings, it is not surprising that musicians of coming generations emerge from this "culture medium" ... But Issa is a phenomenon! ... Bearer of an undeniable cultural authenticity, reflecting centuries of Kurdish music, Issa belongs to this new generation of musicians who make us share the fruits of their research and their encounters... He has a deep knowledge of Kurdish music and its various regions: he sings it, he also dances it but, above all, he lives and breathes it every day ... Thousand times he has listened to the old tapes which his father had recorded in the Fifties, at evenings events where visiting friends thanked their host by singing until the early hours of the morning... From these files he extracted pearls... What is really surprising, is the ease with which he breaths new life into these songs, bringing them out of oblivion and freeing them of some rather archaeic turns of phrase. Thanks to this rejuvenation, things that till then belonged to dusty folklore files suddenly become closer and can then affect even the most demanding Western ears as to their musical quality... Indeed, the tours of great artists of "Music of the World" have gradually formed a listening public which, beginning with simple curiosity, has developed a more selective understanding. On the other hand, of many Eastern artists have been misled into imagining that they were going to modernize the old repertory of their grandfathers more profitably, by adopting the whole panoply of electric instruments imported from Europe... This type of mixture, if it corresponds to the sociological and cultural evolution of some Eastern countries, has, so far, rarely gone beyond the level of variety show songs and, paradoxically, does not bare comparison with the original music of the countries concerned... By personal taste as much as by concern with an authenticity, Issa has preferred to use the traditional Eastern instruments, even if his musical dynamic is more modern than in a mountain village of Kurdistan..., One can, without embarrassment, compare the quality of the compositions and improvisations which he performs in this album with any that the jazz can still offer in the way of spontaneity and of musical enjoyment... In addition Issa, who has lived in Paris for the last ten years, has had the opportunity of meeting there musicians coming from a variety of musical horizons and to experiment with instrumental combinations in which each one brings to the whole its own musical quality without distortion or caricature... Back to discograpy |
24 November 2006 
Issa at Musiques au Comptoir
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