Seeing the Master

I saw the master on 9th of May for the first time (I should have written this down on that date, didn't do it but it sure was a burden on my mind) and what can I say...I was profoundly touched. I have never been a big fan of Iranian traditional (sufi music and otherwise) except for his work. I don't know exactly why, maybe it was the fact that my father liked his music and had some of his albums in his car, in particular the album called "Winter (Zemestan)" and "Memory of friend (Yadegare doost)" which made me acquainted with his work. I have to say that I regard the latter album such a great masterpiece that I can not possibly admire it enough, makes me cry every single time I listen to it and I try not doing that as it has to be kept in a special place in my heart.

Anyhow, he came onto the stage with his small group (his son among them), he was all himself, so humble and down to earth, kind, polite and simply adorable, 100% true darvish as he is...as he was and as he will be. He had a caught a bad cold and I feared that would affect his performance, not that 'I' wanted to see a great performance but I just didn't want him to descend from his high in the eyes of the audience (ever!), he did apologize for his possible shortcomings due to the nasty cold. Boy I was so dead wrong. He was nothing but pure excellence and utmost brilliance. He sang some peoms of Ferdowsi for the first time and it was mind blowing...period. Then he performed some parts of the album called "The passion of Rumi (Shoore Rumi)", an album that I hadn't listened to before. This album is so amazing that I have been listening to it almost constantly in the past months, yet carefully not to overuse it. Needless to say, this album is yet another masterpiece by the master which I strongly recommend to every human being with a free soul. He was so carried away with his performance mainly due to the interaction that he received from the audience (he admitted this himself later during a pause) that he and the rest of the group ran over the program and were continuing long after a planned stop. If it wasn't for my buddy beside me that just couldn't hold it after they finished the title track of 'The passion of Rumi' and stood up and clapped with intensity, they would have gone all the way to the end without a single pause! In the last part of the program, he performed all by himself playing setar and singing a beautiful take on the very famous "Andak andak" song as well as a Kurdish song, to pay homage to his origin, something which I enjoyed immensely.

It was altogether an unforgettable experience for me, I feel truly blessed to have been there and been spiritually touched by the master's work, performance and presence. No wonder he has won several national and international honors such as France’s "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" medal for his lifetime achievements in Persian Classical music as well as prestigious Lifetime Cultural Heritage Award from Asia Society.

On a very personal note, I think his voice and his singing was a divine touch that opened my soul to the tenderness, elegance and purity of Rumi's poems. It's one of the few moments that I feel incredibly proud of my origin which makes me understand this beauty with every single cell in my body and dissolve as a tiny small drop in the ocean of Persian mysticism.