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All That Jazz (at the Turkish Embassy) | Talking Points Memo

Unbelievable history.  Two Turkish Muslims work for a Jewish man and bridge America’s racial divide through music. All That Jazz (at the Turkish Embassy) | Talking Points Memo. “As teenagers, both Ertegun boys had a passion for jazz music and became friends with many of the city’s musicians,” Ambassador Tan said. “In fact, just around the corner [from the Howard Theatre], Ahmet and his brother worked at a store, ‘Waxi Maxi’ with Max Silverman, the owner. It was out of this store that Ahmet began selling albums from his collection of thousands of jazz and blues records. When they closed…

A Diplomatic Mission of Muslim Hip-Hop – NYTimes.com

A Diplomatic Mission of Muslim Hip-Hop – NYTimes.com. But Native Deen’s faith places it in the history of American hip-hop more generally. Pioneering hip-hop artists like Afrika Bambaataa and Wu-Tang Clan have demonstrated in their lyrics the pervasive influence of Islam in black America. Even when rappers are not themselves Muslim, Dr. Abdul Khabeer said, many borrow ideas and terminology from orthodox Islam and from Muslim-identified groups, like the Nation of Islam and the Five-Percent Nation.

Interview on NPR on Riyaaz Qawwali

I was recently interviewed on NPR about Riyaaz Qawwali, a group out of Austin, TX. Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Hofstra University, says that many qawwaliartists working in South Asia today have limited themselves. He believes this American group is bringing the music back to its roots.  “You know, I think there’s been so much concern about what is Islam, and what isn’t, politically speaking and artistically speaking,” Rashid says, “that there’s been a push in modern qawwali to actually sanitize it and make it very sterile — and almost rule-bound — rather than ecstatic and devotional. For me, I think…