Tag: Music

  • Muslim rockers inspired by Pink Floyd take on Turkey

    Muslim rockers inspired by Pink Floyd take on Turkey

    A Muslim imam in Turkey has joined with a rock band to bring a message of peace and love to Muslims. Religious authorities are not sure if they like it.

    KAS, Turkey — What do you get when you mix a medieval Sufi poet with one of the greatest ’70s rock acts of all time?

    A Muslim rock band led by a Turkish imam whose music is an Islamic version of peace and love.

    “If I hurt your heart, I believe that I hurt God’s heart,” says Ahmet Muhsin Tuzer, bedecked in the white robe he wears when leading the faithful to prayer in the tiny village of Pinarbasi near Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline. “If we love each other, we will be very happy this life and the next life.”

    But Tuzer’s melding of influences from 13th century Sufi poet Rumi and 1970s rock band Pink Floyd is attracting attention from Turkey’s religious establishment, which has been expanding its authority over Turkish society under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The mufti in charge of the region’s mosque confirmed that the Rockin’ Imam is being investigated.

    “In the (religious affairs directorate) we have certain common values,” mufti Ahmet Celik told USA TODAY from his office in the city of Antalya. “(Investigators) are looking into it to see if there’s anything against these values.”

    Tuzer, 42, is an accomplished muezzin — the one who sings the call to prayer — and had earlier been posted in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet quarter that houses the ancient Ottoman capital with many of its most famous mosques.

    Tuzer says he spent the last two years exploring Sufi mysticism and he’d long had an interest in singing, drawing inspiration from the late Freddie Mercury of the British band Queen.

    Earlier this year, Tuzer met some veteran rock musicians in the nearby seaside town of Kas, a touristy fishing village where he was born and raised. He decided he’d like to fuse his love of rock music with the beauty contained in Islamic verse and he began to write songs with Dogan Sakin, a guitarist who’s played with some of the most well-known musicians in Turkey.

    The collaboration begat FiRock, which combines Tuzer’s lilting vocals with Sakin’s metal guitar riffs. With his long, grey hair and tattooed arms and legs, Sakin looks the part of the veteran rocker. Sakin is not religious but says he believes in the group’s message.

    “I felt this would be something beautiful directly from the heart,” Sakin said. “Without that feeling, I wouldn’t be here.”

    “We could play ney and bende (traditional Turkish instruments) but that wouldn’t attract much attention,” Sakin said. “It would be too traditional and wouldn’t work. But with rock, it’s universal.”

    In the band’s first concert in Kas in August, Tuzer took the stage in the long white robe usually reserved for an imam leading prayers. About a thousand people listened to songs that included the band’s first recorded single, Mevlaya Gel (“Come to the Creator”).

    The image of an imam on stage with seasoned rockers created a sensation in Turkey. But not everyone grooved on their musical message. After the show Tuzer says insults and even threats poured in on Twitter and other social media.

    “The radical Islamist public, they don’t like my music, my stuff because they cannot understand,” he said.

    But the band could threaten Tuzer’s livelihood. In Turkey, imams are employed by the government’s religious affairs directorate, which supervises the country’s mosques. Soon after news of FiRock broke Tuzer found himself under investigation by his employer.

    Under the law, there are rules about what kind of business imams can engage in outside of their profession as religious figures. Mosque officials are examining whether being in a rock band constitutes a commercial activity.

    Meanwhile, the band released its first single and music video on YouTube — getting around 20,000 hits — and is recording its first album.

    FiRock’s ambition is to show a side of Islam that’s often overshadowed by violent Islamist radicals to the detriment of all.

    “Islam is peaceful. Islam is respect,” Tuzer said. “Islam is moral — and beautifully moral. We want to live like that.”

    Turkey is a modern society but is polarized between a growing religiously conservative sector that for the past decade have been the power base for Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government under Erdogan.

    Some Turks who look westward for their music and fashion feel threatened by recent restrictions on the sale of alcohol and dictates about family size — one of the roots of protests in cities across Turkey over the summer..

    Sakin says the band wants to help heal the division in Turkish society.

    “Why should we be so polarized? We embrace everybody,” he said. “What good is it to be polarized for the rest of our lives?”

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/19/turkey-rocking-imam/3007893/

  • Renowned Muslim superstar of Azeri origin to perform in Istanbul

    Renowned Muslim superstar of Azeri origin to perform in Istanbul

    The Muslim world’s biggest musical superstar, Sami Yusuf, has dropped into Istanbul to promote his latest work, “Salaam,” which features 16 songs, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

    Sami_Yusuf

    “It is a generous album. It gives message of peace, solidarity, love and, most of all, hope. These are eternal and permanent truths, values,” Yusuf said after landing in Istanbul on March 31, adding that the album had gained greater meaning in the wake of the changes in the Arab world.

    Yusuf, a British singer-songwriter of Azeri origin, said humanity was being forced to deal with big problems.

    “I don’t have a political personality; I consider problems in a humanistic matter. We have gone through the changes brought by the Arab Spring all together. In my opinion, this album gains meaning in this context because it talks about overcoming problems and difficulties,” he said, adding that “art should be pure.”

    He said he had composed the song “I am your hope” after the revolution in Egypt and that the song was related to youth but not a specific party or group.

    Yusuf said his music was considered as divine, rock or pop in the world but he preferred the definition “Spiritique.”

    “This is a word I have invented. The goal of my own music, which I define with this word, is to draw listeners to the spiritual world. No one can monopolize the spiritual world,” he said.

  • Helloween Cancels Istanbul Show

    Helloween Cancels Istanbul Show

    Helloween_photoHelloween has been on tour in support of latest album “Straight Out Of Hell” (reviewed here), and the band has now checked in with the following announcement about canceling a show due to Andi Deris becoming ill:

    “Due to illness of Andi we unfortunately have to cancel the Istanbul show. We feel very sorry for our Turkish fans! We are looking forward to be able to continue the tour after that small break in Sofia on Friday.”

    The tour will continue as planned in Sofia, Bulgaria on March 15th. For a list of upcoming Helloween tour dates, head over to the band’s Facebook profile here.

    via Helloween Cancels Istanbul Show – in Metal News ( Metal Underground.com ).

  • Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert

    Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert

    TEHRAN – Three kamancheh virtuosos from Iran, Turkey and Greece have come together to perform a concert at the Cemal Resit Rey Hall of Istanbul on March 5.

     

    Kayhan Kalhor from Iran, Derya Turkan from Turkey, and Sokratis Sinopoulos from Greece will perform the concert entitled “Night of Kamancheh”, the Cemal Resit Rey Hall announced on Saturday.

     

    The musicians have organized the program to highlight the power the Iranian instrument.

     

    The Iranian santur virtuoso Ali Bahrami-Fard will also accompany the group in some performances.

     

    They will perform classic pieces of their own country as well as some improvisations during the concert.

     

    Kalhor has previously collaborated with some international musicians.

     

    The most recent one was his joint performance with the Turkish baglama player, Erdal Erzincan, at the GlobalFest, New York’s annual world music festival in January 2013.

     

    SB/YAW

    END

    via Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert – Tehran Times.

  • Sarah Brightman ♫♪ HareM

    Sarah Brightman ♫♪ HareM

    4988006883147Harem is a 2003 album by English singer Sarah Brightman. It mixes her operatic voice with Middle-Eastern and Indian rhythms and vocals. Thanks to an idea of Frank Peterson, the producer of this album, in the song “Mysterious Days”, they included the vocals of the late singer Ofra Haza, who worked with Peterson in 1997 on her eponymous album.

    Following the release of Harem, Brightman launched the Harem World Tour and the DVD The Harem World Tour: Live from Las Vegas.

    Contents

    • 1 Track listing
      • 1.1 Bonus/Unreleased tracks
    • 2 Charts, sales and certifications
      • 2.1 Charts
      • 2.2 Sales and certifications
    • 3 References

    Track listing

    1. “Harem” – 5:45 (cover of “Canção do Mar” by Amália Rodrigues and Dulce Pontes)
    2. “What a Wonderful World” – 3:40 (originally sung by Louis Armstrong)
    3. “It’s a Beautiful Day” – 3:56 (adapted from the Un Bel Di Vedremo aria from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly) (Cover of “Ein Schöner Tag” by Schiller)
    4. “What You Never Know” – 3:24
    5. “The Journey Home” – 4:56 (cover of song from Bombay Dreams by A.R.Rahman)
    6. “Free” – 3:45
    7. “Mysterious Days” – 5:17 (featuring Israeli singer Ofra Haza)
    8. “The War is Over” (featuring Iraqi singer Kadim Al Sahir and English violinist Nigel Kennedy) – 5:15
    9. “Misere Mei” – 0:54 (from Gregorio Allegri’s “Miserere”)
    10. “Beautiful” – 4:35 (cover of “Beautiful” by Mandalay)
    11. “Arabian Nights: Scimitar Moon/Voyage/Promise/Hamesha/Alone” – 8:50 (featuring Natacha Atlas)
    12. “Stranger in Paradise” – 4:27 (adapted from Alexander Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances)
    13. “Until the End of Time” – 4:32

    Bonus/Unreleased tracks

    1. “You Take My Breath Away” (American version) – 6:50 (originally released on Brightman’s 1995 album, Fly)
    2. “Guéri De Toi” (International version) – 3:50 (French version of “Free”)
    3. “Tout Ce Que Je Sais” (Canadian version) – 3:28 (French version of “What You Never Know”)
    4. “Sarahbande” (Japanese version) – 3:60
    5. “Namida: When Firebirds Cry” (Harem Ultimate Edition) – 4:10
    6. “Where Eagles Fly” (unreleased song with Eric Adams from Manowar) – 3:53

    Note: This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.

    Charts, sales and certifications

    Charts

    Chart (2003) Peak
    Position
    U.S. Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums 1
    Swedish Album Chart 1
    Greek Albums Chart[2] 3
    Canada Top Albums 7
    Japan Oricon Top Albums 8
    Mexico Top 100 Albums Chart 10
    Portugal Albums Top 30[3] 12
    Germany Media Control Albums Top 100 12
    Australia Albums Top 50s[3] 16
    Hungary MAHASZ Top 40 Album 20
    Austria Albums Top 75[3] 22
    Finland Albums Top 50[3] 25
    Dutch Albums Top 100[3] 27
    New Zealand Albums Top 40[3] 29
    U.S. Billboard Top 200 Albums 29
    U.S. Billboard Top Internet Albums 29
    Denmark Albums Top 40[3] 35
    Norway Albums Top 40[3] 36
    Swiss Albums Top 100[3] 53
    UK Albums Chart 172
  • FAZIL SAY YENİ BİR GÜLNİHAL (Jazz variations) – YouTube

    FAZIL SAY YENİ BİR GÜLNİHAL (Jazz variations) – YouTube

    FAZIL SAY YENİ BİR GÜLNİHAL (Jazz variations)

    via FAZIL SAY YENİ BİR GÜLNİHAL (Jazz variations) – YouTube.