The Caspian Kids

After an extended delay - The Caspiankids is pleased to announce that they back and rockin' at full speed! Stay turned for the stories and analysis you have come to expect from us...

In the meantime, please enjoy some excellent persian music : Raam - Shekarchi

In honor of exam week and my mellow mood, i give you......(Drum Roll) the XX!

I usually don't post persian music under the "things you should hear section", but i had to make an exception for monika jalilli.

Manhattan Local Music Examiner - Jim Bessman

Monika Jalili’s show last month at Le Poisson Rouge was the Persian music vocalist’s first performance in her hometown in 18 months—also the first since last year’s release of her second album Élan.

The name of her three year-old son, élan is also defined as ardor or zeal, and is a word that describes Jalili’s passion for the music she embraced relatively recently.

“They’re all cover songs and folk songs that are hard to categorize,” she says, “songs that were popular in Iran from the 1940s to the end of the ‘70s—but not modern day pop music. What attracted me was the poetry of the lyrics and the beautiful music, which is completely western-influenced--not using traditional Iranian scales and modes but western major and minor scales, which is why they were banned after the 1979 revolution and are still banned today.”

The Ayatollah Khomeini then permitted only religious classical music, “which this is not,” she explains. “It was probably a symbol of the West to him, so all those singers—great artists like Mohammad Nouri, Aref, Parvin and Simin Ghanem—had their careers cut short. But they’re beautiful songs about very simple things: love, hope--universal themes we all relate to.”

Born and raised of German and Dutch parentage in the New York area, Jalili trained in musical theater at Columbia and the Manhattan School of Music. She performed with the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (Steve Allen played the Mikado in one production) and in numerous Off Broadway and touring shows.

But her husband is a Beirut-born Iranian, and she fell in love with Iranian music thanks to her father-in-law--after a fortuitous introduction.

“I had an Iranian friend who was studying music in New York whose teacher loved my singing, and he called me a month later to see if I’d perform a concert of Persian folk songs in Long Island—which has a large Iranian community,” says Jalili. “He taught me some songs and it was incredibly challenging, because I didn’t know the language and every song was in a different dialect. But I did it and a few months later picked up the songs again on my own and developed a personal connection.”

She recorded some of them and sent them to her father-in-law.

“He lives in Brussels and I visited him one summer,” Jalili recalls. “He was so proud I was singing his country’s songs, and when he picked me up he had an old cassette tape in the car and said I’d really love it. It was a song from the 1950s, ‘Jaan-e Maryam’—‘My Beloved Maryam'—by Mohammad Nouri, who was a major star. I took it back to New York to learn it, and my husband had an Iranian friend who played music on the side and he taught me more songs from that era—and with each one I fell more and more in love: It’s like they were written for me!”

Jalili was now teaching French at a school in the Bronx full-time, so she was able to go to Los Angeles during summer vacation in 2003.

“I had spent hours on the phone with my mother-in-law learning the words and pronunciation of the songs,” she continues, “but there’s a big Persian community in L.A., and I spent a month and took private lessons and worked on my own with books and tapes--so now I speak the language and there’s less of a barrier singing the songs.”

Back in New York, Jalili put together a band and in 2005 self-released her debut album NoorSaaz (the title combines the Farsi words for light--noor--and saaz, which means both creator and musical instrument). It showcased “Jaan-e Maryam” and Aref’s popular “Soltan-e Ghalbha” (“The Ruler Of Hearts”): “I felt inspired to translate them and the other songs into English and French, as a great way for people who don’t speak Persian to hear this poetry.”

But a performance at Trinity Church in Downtown Manhattan In October, 2005, really launched Jalili’s career.

“It was telecast on the Web and a couple weeks later I was flooded with emails from all over world,” she recalls. “So many Iranians congratulated me and said the most touching things about how it brought back all kinds of beautiful memories of childhood—and I got countless invites to perform all over the place.”

The Trinity Church concert has since been made available on DVD (Songs Of Love From Iran), and she has performed all over North America and Europe “and even Dubai!”

Jalili now lives with her family in Salt Lake City, having moved there a year ago go be closer to her brother and provide more growing room for Élan.

Phoenix is an alternative rock band from Versailles, France. The song "1901" was featured on their 2010 release, "Wolfgang Amadaeus Phoenix"

Great song by a great Canadian Band...Enjoy.

Eddie Vedder is the lead singer from Pearl Jam, this amazing song, "Hard Sun" was featured in the "Into The Wild" soundtrack.

The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my Favorite bands of all time, this song, "1979" is featured on their "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" album.

The Black Keys are a rock-blues duo from Akron Ohio. The song "Next Girl" is from their 2010 album "Brothers". - P.S. they Rock Yo.