Legendary kamanche (spike fiddle) player, Iranian Kurd Kayhan Kalhor teams up with other musicians to produce Kurdish jazz; very unusual and beautiful; fusion in the best sense of the term with Azerbaijani jazz pianist, Kurdish singer, and Kurdish tenbur (long-necked lute) player; compelling music; the name seems to be a Kurdish-Persian blend meaning something like “Praying together;” one of a kind, genre-bending music

NO FCC's; Favorite tracks – 1, 2, 3, 5

**1 - Delale – 15:56 – starts with minimalist piano chords, very quiet; lots of rests; traditional Kurdish song about the Beloved; about a third of the way through Aynur, the singer, comes in with traditional song that is tinged with the modernist way the kamanche is played and the jazz piano chords while at the same time sounding powerfully Kurdish; the tenbur threads it together

*2- Rewend –11:48 – “nomad” begins with traditional song invocation on tenbur; singer comes in; I have heard the traditional version of this song and this is an amazing variant with piano and kamanche backing traditional singer with powerful voice tapering off at the end in a beautiful outro

*3- Xidire Min –10:49 – shape shifting kamanche starts off with piano underneath; singer comes in about halfway through; kamanche leads the way here

4- Malan Barkir –Berivane -9:38 – begins a little more rhythmically with tenbur and piano accompaniment and then voice

**5 – Ehmedo –Ez Rebenim – “I'm Desperate” starts quietly with piano chords – singer comes in a third of the way through; simple directness of lyrics and rawness of delivery contrasts with sophistication of piano accompaniment