Category: Music
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…
The Time of Ramadan
Ramadan is nearly here and my boys at PlaneTunity have released a mini-movie to go along with their new single, “The Time of Ramadan.” As a service, you can download the single for free from here. Music, Ramadan
Letter from America – Givin’ It to the Man, Islamic Style – NYTimes.com
Letter from America – Givin’ It to the Man, Islamic Style – NYTimes.com. No doubt for many — probably most — Americans, Islam is associated these days at the very least with ultraconservative social mores — the lesser status of women, for example — not to mention the practices of the radical extreme — the cult of death, suicide bombings, acid thrown in the faces of girls going to school. So how about Muslims who embrace feminism, play in punk rock bands, and castigate orthodox, official Saudi Arabian-supported Islam as “Islamofascism?” Yes, it starts with some clichés, but we will…
#NYC Event – IMAN at the Apollo with Mos Def and @aasif_mandvi
IMAN at the Apollo Special Edition of Community Cafe Saturday, January 23, 2010 7:30pm The Apollo Theatre 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, NY Tickets $20 : Purchase Here Join IMAN as we host one of the first Muslim-led arts & culture events of its kind at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York City. IMAN’s Community Café, established in 2003, provides a space to celebrate and engage in diverse and creative artistic expression. The event continues to excite, inspire and unite a cross-section of American Muslims with the larger community to appreciate the arts as a tool for cross-cultural communication,…
The Muppets do Persian Music
Technically, Parsi music. Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara. I suppose it’s also Zanzibari music.
Contemporary Pakistani Music
It’s not all about Junoon anymore, if it ever was. CNN ran this article several months ago about heavy metal in Pakistan, including some type of hip-hop dancing thing. Videos below: Compare this view of music to what the Kominas deal with in their expression of punk (h/t Sepia Mutiny): Of course, both sources have distinct narratives they need to tell. The truth of the popularity and acceptability of such music in Pakistan is somewhere in the middle. Although Junoon did lay the ground work, the increase in Islamist activity and thinking means that performing music remains problematic. I’m not…
More on our #torture policies
If you haven’t already seen it, read this article in Harper’s entitled “We Still Torture.” Then go listen to “Blackout Beach” by the Kominas. Now we have entered what we may wish to call the post-torture era, except that it is not. Indeed, we cannot even revert to the easy hypocrisy of the Cold War. We have returned to our traditional practice of torturing and pretending not to, but the old routine is no longer convincing. We know too much. We know that we are still imprisoning men who very likely are completely innocent. We know that we still beat…
Music, #Iran, and the #IranElection
With my passion for music, I’d be remiss in not pointing out some resources on Iranian music, especially with the conflict surrounding the Iranian election. This piece from Religion Dispatches is good, but I think it takes the “all politics is personal” a little too far. It’s not always about the music. Hawg Blawg is always excellent, and Talk Islam has some work as well. Andrew Sullivan is running an intermittent series called “Outing Iran” that includes a lot of music.