David Dalle
Thursday October 15th, 2020 with David Dalle
Remembering Mohammad Reza Shajarian.

Today, we remember and celebrate the incredible artistry and soul of Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the greatest Persian singer of his generation, who performed at the pinnacle of Persian classical music for over five decades. He died on Oct 8th, aged 80. He was born in the city of Mashhad in Khorasan in 1940 and he started to learn to sing at the age of 5 with his father. As a young man, he moved to Tehran to study with masters Ahmad Ebadi, Esmaeel Mertash, Reza-Gholi Mirza Zelli, Abdollah Davami and others. His career took off in the 60's and he became widely acclaimed for his incredible singing, technically flawless, imaginative, and deeply emotional. After the revolution in 1979, Shajarian, like many Iranians, had a complicated relationship with the government. The Islamic Republic moved quickly to ban contemporary and Western-influenced music, but they offered a lot of support to traditional Persian music, which benefited Shajarian. However, it also enforced greater gender segregation and made careers for women artists very difficult if not impossible. Shajarian gained worldwide recognition during the 80's and 90's with many tours and recordings and he was promoted as the greatest living exponent of Persian culture by the Iranian government. However, Shajarian did subtly express his conflict with the government through some of his music, such as his legendary 1981 Abu-Ata concert and his groundbreaking 1984 album "Bidad" (which we will hear today). His conflict became more overt in 2009 during the Green Movement protests (which arose after what many Iranians consider a fraudulent presidential election). Shajarian came out explicitly in favour of the protests. Shajarian's music was banned from state media and he was forbidden to perform or record in Iran. He still continued to perform and record outside Iran and the state ban only increased his popularity. Politics aside, Shajarian was beloved and inspired countless people through the beauty and power of his music. For myself, when I listen to the greatest Persian musicians, such as Shajarian, it is so profound and moving it sounds like it comes from the heart of the world, from deep in the Earth. We will listen to several recordings covering 25 years of Shajarian's career.