Hafez-Inspired Music by Canadian, Iranian, Israeli American Ensemble Wins Grammy Award
Independent Aggregator of Iran-related News/Events, Kodoom.com: Opium Moon, a self-titled debut album by the Los Angeles-based multi-cultural musical ensemble "Opium Moon" has received a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. And the album's and group's name is inspired by the great Persian Sufi poet Hafez (or Hafiz), according to Lili Haydn. And on stage, Hamid Saeidi (A distinguished marketing partner of Kodoom, see events links on Kodoom HERE), the Iranian American member of the group thanked Iranian fans in Persian (see video below).
Lili Haydn, the violinist for the Los Angeles-based quartet says: Three out of four of us are immigrants coming from Iran, Israel, and Canada. So, the growing global refugee crisis is close to our hearts. This song is both a very intimate sensual piece and also a dream of a more inclusive, kinder world, pregnant with the joy and sorrow of all of us in our 'caravan' toward freedom. Our music is created by listening to each other deeply and loving across traditional boundaries of state, religion, and harmony... really, the embodiment of the change we'd like to see in the world."
Lili Haydn adds that "the name Opium Moon, as well as the organic improvisational way we create, was inspired by a poem of the great Sufi poet Hafiz called "She Responded:"
The bird's favorite songs
You do not hear,
For their most flamboyant music takes place
When their wings are stretched
Above the trees
And they are smoking the opium of pure freedom...
I once asked a bird,
"How is it that you fly in this gravity
Of darkness?"
She responded,
"Love lifts Me"
According to band member Itai Disraeli: "For a band of Americans and Iranians, gentiles and Jews to be nominated for a Grammy sends a message that music done in freedom and peace has value and is recognized."
Bob Boilen of NPR calls their album a rare pleasure: "It's a rare pleasure to find music that gives me pause, slows me down from the daily deluge and gives me a moment to think. That's exactly what happened when I first heard 'Caravan' from Opium Moon's self-titled, debut album. This music with violin, santur (a hammered dulcimer,) ancient percussion and bass is spacious and timeless."
The group's distinctive sound is a melding of the members' diverse backgrounds.
Haydn, who has been performing since she was a child, is Canadian-born and has collaborated or toured with, among others, P-Funk, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Cyndi Lauper, Herbie Hancock and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Santoor player, Iranian-born Hamid Saeidi is considered a master of the santoor. He has composed scores for over 30 films and has toured the world leading his own ensemble (see events promoted on Kodoom HERE).
Disraeli, 58, was born on Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek in Israel, where music was a family affair. He played traditional songs but was influenced by the blues and Indian music. Since moving to the United States in the late 1990s, he’s played in many projects, most notably with his brothers in the trio Maetar.
Sixty-something percussionist MB Gordy is not Jewish but married to a Jewish woman. His wife, he said, jokingly calls him “the drummer to the Jews.”
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