NEW
YORK (Hen House Studios) Not everything is strife and buggery between
the
Middle East and the United States, and leave it to
Doors drummer
John Densmore to show us the light - or rather, the Ray. He has
produced what Hen House Studios founder and President Harlan
Steinberger calls "a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful record."
Not
that Steinberger is biased or anything, just because his Venice,
Calif., based music recording and film complex is uncorking Ray of the
Wine, on Feb. 1, the highly anticipated Hen House Studios debut from
renowned Persian-American multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist
Reza.
Reza observes, "The fact that a Persian musician worked with one of The
Doors is a big deal."
Think
of this historical pairing as the
Middle East meets West in the Hen
House where the quintessential American rock musician's mandate was to
westernize the arrangements of the Persian folk and classical music
that Reza, a longtime New Yorker, has been wanting to bring stateside.
The emphasis track, "Ray of the Wine," is already making a splash at
Triple A radio.
Densmore, who played drums on the album and
wrote its vivid liner notes, humorously describes Ray of the Wine as
"peaceful sounds from 'The Axis of Evil,'" adding reverently, "Reza
plays magic. He has all these instruments that look like they belong in
the Smithsonian."
Comparing each song on Ray of the Wine to "a
painting, with different colors and feelings," Reza strokes the rhythms
and melodies of mysticism, divinity, and human love -- most taken from
the lyrical pages of ancient Persian poetry and a few he wrote -- with
"brushes" such as the tar, sitar, ney, kamanche, and Farsi incantations.
Ironically,
Densmore wasn't familiar with certain instruments to be used on Ray of
the Wine when he and Reza began pre-production, but laughs, "I
immediately resonated to the music and knew what to do. It sounds a
little pompous, but I got it."
An acclaimed painter whose
evocative water color imagery ensconces the CD, Reza says, "I want to
make the connection, even if the language is different. The music
translates to the American audience. There's more recognition of Indian
music and the Arab world in the West, but there hasn't been a lot of
understanding of Persian music, because it hasn't been introduced the
way it should be, in order to make a connection. This music has that
quality, the way it's presented, and I hope makes it more listenable.
"The music is not totally traditional or from a different world," he
assures quietly. "People can relate to it, at least in terms of the
color and arrangement."
Densmore adds, "It blows my mind that in
the last 10 years,
America is accepting music in languages it can't
speak. Look at the Buena Vista Social Club; it went through the roof.
You get the feeling of the culture, even if you don't literally
understand the lyrics. Reza's songs are so beautiful that they
transcend the language barrier."
Ray of the Wine was recorded
live in three days, and conveys the improvisation of "instruments
talking to each other," as Densmore succinctly explains. However, all
that spontaneity among crack musicians Osama Afiffi (electric bass),
Quinn Johnson (keyboards),
Christina Berio (percussion), Stephen Kent
(didgeridoo), took a lot of cross-country pre-production between him
and Reza.
"It was really fun, like a jazz record," says
Densmore, who was also the executive producer along with Steinberger,
whose revolutionary Hen House Studios offers free recording time to
musicians in exchange for the right to film them during the process.
Reza asserts, "Harlan kept the record alive," referring to the long hibernation of Ray of the Wine after its completion.
Born
in Tehran, Reza studied Persian classical and folk music. His recording
credits include soundtrack and recording collaborations with renowned
artists. Recent Reza performances include the MAXXI Museum in Rome,
Lensic Performing Art Center in
Santa Fe, and two performances at the
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. He and Densmore plan to gig in Los
Angeles in the spring, with the distinct possibility of touring behind
Ray of the Wine.
It's a concept as intoxicating as the album itself. Cheers to that.
