Infinite Breath - NAFAS by Madjid Khaladj

The mystical substance along with the lexical relations in a poem or a piece of prose awaken numerous parallel emotions deep in our consciousness; powerful writings unfold into mystical emotions.

Thus, the poem chosen for a musical composition is the essential spring from which the music’s tones and rhythms flow. As emotions metamorphosed by man into words, the syllabic intonations of poems generate the rhythmic emotion of the music while in an onomatopic reversal, the sounds of words breath life into the emotions: dynamic, spiritual, meditative... by these exchanges, we transcend into a universe of rhythms where all is connected and held together by the ‘infinite breath’.

This recording represents a mere drop from the unlimited spring of possible explorations of Persian poetry. As it flows, it carries us through a vast garden, vibrant with color of flowers and ebullient with their fragrances.

The Instruments:

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Tombak

This is the main percussion instrument of Persian art music. Its challis shaped body is made of a turned and hollowed-out walnut or mulberry tree trunk with a goatskin stretched across the wide end of the resonator. (Heard on tracks 1,2,7,10).

Daf

Much appreciated and developed by the dervishes for use in spiritual performances, the daf is a frame drum that has its origins in the Middle East and Central Asia. In addition to its size, it is different from its closest kin by the chains metal rings that are suspended within the frame (Heard on tracks 3,6,9 and 10).

Dayreh

The name literally means circle. It is a Persian frame drum that is smaller than the daf (Heard on track 8).

Zang-e saringoshti

Brass cymbals pairs attached onto the thumb and the middle finger of each hand. Mainly employed to stress the dance, one finds them particularly omni-present on figurine dancers in Persian miniature paintings of the beginning of the last century (Heard on tracks 4 and 6).

Dohol

A large cylindrical double-ended drum, the dohol is played with two special drumsticks. One is a thick wooden one, bowed close to the end, called Changaal, and the other one, called Deyrak, is a much thinner one. (heard on tracks 6 and 10).

Tombak-e zurkhaneh

This instrument is a large tombak formed in pottery rather than wood. It is slightly conical in form and is played in zurkhâneh, the traditional persian gymnasium where orchestrated rythmic exercises and mystical peotry are combined to provide a transcendence experience. (Heard on tracks 5 and 10).

Senj

This is a special type of large diameter brass cymbals, played by striking a pair together. (heard on track 10).

Zang

Bell, a much smaller version of the European cowbell, it rings at higher notes. (Heard on track 10).

Zanguleh

This is a small spherical bell, put on the neck of the heard in villages and at the same time used around the ankle and the wrist in folk dances, especially in India and Central Iran. (Heard on track 10).

Ayineh’pil

This may be called a Persian “Gong”. It is a large metallic drum of ancient origins. (Heard on track 10).

Prose and Poems:

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Sa’adi,13th.C.E (1. Nafas / Infinite Breath)

Aref-e Ghazvini, 20th.C.E (3. Ekhtiyaar-e del / Swaying Disires)

Haafez,14th.C.E (7. Saaghi / The Cup Bearer & 9. Jahaan-e faani / Our Ephemeral Realm)

© Madjid Khaladj / Bâ Music Records

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Review of Madjid Khaladj's previous album (2002) by nsabba (Brookline, MA):

Madjid Khaladj's percussion work give voice to the stretched skin on daf, drum, and dayereh in ways that are abstractions of the human voice in the way that earthen vases and pots are abstractions of human existence for Khayyam. I became familiar with this amazing artist only a year ago, and can't stop spreading the pleasure I've derived from listening to him.

Actually I heard his tombak* during a 1994 performance of the Paris based Mostagh group, was truly taken by it but didn't realize who it was until I got this CD last year. The true measure of percussionists in Iran has been Hossein Tehrani, who in the fifties and sixties raised the level of the tombak to that of a solo instrument. He showed everyone the capability of the percussion to suggest implied melodies and absent voices which it would have accompanied were they present in a give piece. Madjid Khaladj makes these abstracted suggestions come alive, especially on the daf, the larger of the three main stretch skinned percussive instruments of Iran...

You will be pleased with the broad appeal of this artist. He uses persian instruments, but in his hand, they speak universal passages.

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Madjid Khaladj / A Master of Iranian Music

Of the many talented younger players from the Iranian classical music scene, this player of the tombak and other traditional instruments has made the most widespread inroads on the Western music scene, although the rewards of that may be questioned when they include soundtrack appearances on such Hollywood duds as Geronimo, Last Man Standing or The Insider...

The instrument played by Madjid Khaladj is known as a tombak in Iran, a dombak in Turkey, and has an Irish relative in the bhodran. Khaladj began studying the instrument at the age of seven, the initial pounding and banging of a youth leading to a brilliant career as a traditional musician, pedagogue, composer, and lecturer. He has mastered an entire family of Iranian percussion instruments, including the daf...actually considered as a mystical drum. The musical adventures of Khaladj have led to collaborations with the traditional Armenian vocal group Kotchnak, as well as the laid-back California recording scene of world music wannabe Ry Cooder. The Iranian also went far from his roots when he recorded an album entitled Chopin, Impressions with pianist Leszek Mozdzer and the results of this collaboration can only be described as fascinating.

Khaladj has moved well beyond what is sometimes seen as the drummer's traditional role in the background to lead numerous activities on the international scene, including festivals, concerts, and recordings. Since 1984, he has taught the percussion traditions of his country at the Center for Study of Oriental Musics in the Institute of Musicology of Paris-Sorbonne. In 1996, he founded the College of Tombak, a center of Iranian percussion study, in Paris. Since 1999, he has been invited to teach at the Music Academy of Basel in Switzerland.

An astounding part of this performer is his extensive solo improvisation repertory. As for the many master Iranian musicians who call upon him for percussion support, most would agree that he has few rivals in terms of either instrumental sound or accurate rendition of such a wide variety of traditional rhythmic patterns. His regular playing partners have included tar virtuosos Hossein Alizâdeh and Dariush Talâ'i and ney master Hossein Omoumi.

~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide

*zarb

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