Ardeshir farah biography of michael

Now you sit down, to make music together for the first time. What do you play? Jorge Strunz: Well, the first time we had gotten together actually I met Ardeshir through a mutual friend. So it was quite a surprise to hear him play the first time we got together. And I always liked the piece and I figured well it would be fun to try this piece out. So when Ardeshir came over I suggested that piece as a starting point since we were both interested in certain technical approaches to the guitar.

And I thought it might be an interesting vehicle for the two of us to get started on to see what could evolve from that because it was a demanding piece for guitar especially technically, but fairly easy to remember, to memorize. And so that was the first thing we played and we had a great time with it and were actually harmonizing parts with it on our first meeting.

John Gardner: And Ardeshir were you familiar with that piece? Ardeshir Farah: I was very ardeshir farah biography of michael with that piece. I had heard that piece in childhood by different performers who used to come in to Iran and to Tehran and perform in various places. What are your first memories of music? Ardeshir if you could start off.

Ardeshir Farah: Well in Iran my family particularly my mother was very interested, she liked music from Latin America and from Spain so in the house I used to hear a lot of Latin music, different groups, records and also Flamenco from Spain. Then as I grew up at the age of 10 The Beatles became famous and they became a major influence on many people in Iran and obviously the main instrument in that group was the guitar.

So all of a sudden there were all these cover bands in Tehran that started doing Beatles music. So that was about the time I got my first guitar and of course I had all this Flamenco music in the back of my mind, which is one of the most amazing sources of styles of guitar playing. So after I bought my first electric guitar I formed a band with some friends and we did music from, pop music actually from England, from the United States, and did cover songs.

And after that I moved to London to carry on with my education, basically finish high school and pursue architectural engineering which is something I had to because my family was supporting me and all of my family were architectural engineers. So I ended up going to London for high school studies. In London I joined a few rock bands, and I stayed with one of them.

We did gigs all over England. Starting up gigs in this club and that club and different clubs in London. And I went to Institute of Technology to study architecture. At that time I became very interested in the jazz-fusion music that was going on particularly in this country…. John Gardner: Wow so it even started with adding another culture, somehow Indian classical music got involved in all of this too.

What are some of the cultures you brought into your various recordings and did they influence how you approach or thought about music during the times when you were working with other instrumentation? Jorge Strunz: Very much so actually, because although the foundation of the band was the two guitars, obviously the core unit of the idea, the music that was being written was primarily based on Afro Latin rhythms so our main support group at that time was mostly some of great Afro Latin players we found in Los Angeles including people like Luis Conte well renowned percussionist, Cuban percussionist, and he was instrumental on our first record.

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He recorded the first record with us in Mosaico and his imprint on that record is significant. And at the same time we also collaborated with Subramaniam on the first record, of course came in through the Indian connection that we had. He played two pieces on that record with us, on that first record of ours, and it actually, the recording came out as a courtesy deal on his label at that time which was called Ganesh Records so there was an input from the Indian side at that point of our music.

And we were delighted so we went ahead and recorded with her.

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And she appears on the last piece of the record Guitarras, a piece called Mirage. John Gardner: Going into something like that, such a big collaboration, did you design the music knowing that you were gonna have her vocals? Jorge Strunz: Yes. Well, Aradishir hooked it up obviously, he can tell you about that. Ardeshir Farah: Well you know as we were meeting Jorge and the way he was taking lessons from Harihar Rao and getting into Indian styles and fusing all these different elements, it was a great learning experience for me to how he can incorporate guitar in all these different styles, basically do a lot of things with it.

Before that, my notion of guitar was more limited to jazz fusion, jazz, blues, rock. And then I realized you can incorporate guitar and make Persian music.

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Use Persian rhythms and use Persian scales, some of the melodies. And some of the things they do in Persian instruments, like tar and Santur and Oud. And we thought, well you know, I checked with a lot of the artists I was playing with at the time and, Hayadeh, Hayadeh is like the Queen of Iranian singers, extremely well respected, she was an incredible person and a very kind woman, very kind lady.

And she accepted, she said anytime anywhere. She came and did a solo, she basically did the third solo on the song was her voice. And we were just so delighted to spend time in the studio with her. We did like takes of her just because she was so good, every single one was just as good. We kept recording her over and over again.

That ended up being something really original with guitars, that and Hayadeh. John Gardner: Yeah. Well you mentioned some of the instruments, and it sounded like just through your collaborations you started exploring yourself how to take guitar into these realms with some of these other instruments. What makes that piece, Peaks of Alborz so instantly this Persian sound?

I know there is some Santur on there. Do you have the Kamancheh on that track?

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Ardeshir Farah: Yes we do. Actually, we collaborated with a good musician, good friend of ours, Keyavash Nourai who is a very good instrumentalist, he played several instruments he played violinkamancheh and the santur. And then Jorge added some very interesting harmonies to parts of the song to bring it a little bit out of the model, out of the Persian model, modality.

In that sense, it was a very interesting experiment fusing all these elements together. John Gardner: Clearly the experiment was a success, I love that track. That rhythm had a lot to do with it. Is there a name for that rhythm, a certain timing. What is it about that rhythm that makes it recognizably Persian? We picked that rhythm in order to collaborate with the Persian instrumentals that come before that song.

John Gardner: Classical, great. Any artists or recordings or any suggestions if someone wanted to find out more about Persain ethnic classical? Group is like 6 of them. They were performing at UCLA a few years ago and it turned out they heard of us and came out after the show and just came straight to Jorge and I and sat there and hugged us and said hello.

John Gardner: But jumping from that because obviously you both highly appreciate and have studied Flamenco, I wanted to talk about El Regalitothe little gift, from the latest album. Palmas they are called in Flamenco from the palm of the hand, Palmas. And the Palmas represents that, that kind of very fine tuning in terms of precision of the rhythm.

And in terms of the tune of El Regalito, which means the little gift in Spanish, that piece is actually much more Latin American as the foundation of it. The Cumbia requires a certain set of drums, not all of which were accessible to us during the recordings, so we made do with some other things but he knew all the patterns and the overlays that have to be done.

And this is what creates the rhythmic overlay which makes it unique musical rhythmical in the music of the world. Largely from this African heritage that evolved in a slightly different way obviously in the Caribbean area. So that tune is based on a Cumbia which is an Afro Latin rhythm. John Gardner: Okay basically we just got some serious background, Flamenco, Afro Latin, all sorts of terms being thrown out there.

Sign In Up Donate. Tags Ardeshir Farah. Jason Keiser ardeshir farah biography of michael. Last Updated: February 13, Ardeshir Farah Instrument: Guitar. Buy Now. Song of the Day. Get more of a good thing! Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you. Sign in Join Email address. They soon caught the attention of Richard Bock, an important figure in jazz radio, who helped the duo land a contract with the jazz label Milestone.

Subramaniam on two tracks "Confluence" and "Shadow of Heaven" on their debut recording, Mosaico. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. This article includes a list of general referencesbut it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations.

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