New music series in Toronto.... Starts tomorrow!

Here is an announcement about an intriguing new series starting up. I'll be frank that I'm a little unsure about the name... but I'm not about to be thuggish about it because the idea is brilliant!

Michael Keith and David Sait, in conjunction with AIMToronto are starting a brand new series called the Night Bazaar beginning this Wednesday night (January 28th) at 10pm (Tranzac - front room). The Night Bazaar is booked for the next 3 months at the Tranzac on the last Wednesday of the month (Jan. 28, Feb. 25, March 25) as a test series. Music-wise, they will be scheduling an equal portion of musicians from the [so-called] “World music community” and “Experimental” type-music leaning heavily on improvisation.

After the 3^rd set of music has concluded, and if time allows, there will be a large jam to cap off the night…….so if you are in the neighbourhood, please bring along your instruments. If you are free, please take the time to stop by and support the kick-off to this new series and perhaps hear some exciting new music that you may not have heard before.

If you have any suggestions for upcoming Night Bazaar performers from Toronto, post in the comments, and I will pass on the information to the promoters!

The Night Bazaar Schedule so far:

Wednesday January 28 – 10pm ($5)

(i) Kousha Nakhaei (Persian Fiddle) & David Sait (guzheng)

(ii) Debashis Sinha (improvised manipulations of field recordings from Kolkata, India )

(iii) Michael Keith plays the complete works of Karl Magnet (chicken guitar, voice and electronic debris)

(iiii) open jam (time permitting)

Wednesday February 25^th – 10pm ($5)

Neeraj Prem Masih – Sitar

Siman Tov Orchestra – Russian Klezmer

...and others tba

Wednesday March 25^th – 10pm ($5)

Reza Manbachi Duo - Iranian tar & tombak

Brian Ruryk - noisy guitar & junk (this guy is amazing to see live)

...and others tba

Parvin - Ghoghaye Setaregan

First of all... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Entering 2009 I offer my first purely music post in a while... A collection of songs by the singer Parvin entitled Ghoghaye Setaregan.

I don't have all that much to say about this album except that I really like it. As per usual with older artists from outside of the English-speaking world, it's kind of hard to find info about them, unless you have some keywords in that particular language to work with. Even then, sometimes, it's hard to find too many hits on Google.

To my ears, this Persian vocalist sounds like she comes from the generation behind Googoosh, Firoozeh and the 60's-70's era of Persian music. This guess is mainly based on the tone of the recording, and her delivery which is markedly more distended than many later singers. The song forms are a bit longer too and employ traditional Persian scales more obviously than the vaguely more Westernized music produced later on.

The real draw is Parvin's bold, dark-hued voice. Not unlike her Arab contemporary, Oum Kolthoum, her voice is almost androgynous, sitting comfortably in the mid to upper range of a tenor voice with immense power, but with a timbre that is not readily identified as either male or female.

Enjoy it here!