John Diliberto of Echoes Radio names One by Jamshied Sharifi the March CD of the Month!...
In 2001, on the one month anniversary of 9-11, we sent out a call to musicians to submit music as part of An Echoes Requiem for 9-11. Jamshied Sharifi sat down and in a couple of days composed the most haunting and moving track we received. Simply called "Requiem," it featured his wife and daughter singing in pygmy voices and Moroccan singer Hassan Hakmoun. Reworked slightly, with Seamus Egan from Solas on low whistle, it remains a poignant lament and it’s now a powerful conclusion to his new album, One.
From the first spiraling notes of Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo to the final notes of Requiem, it’s evident that Jamshied Sharifi has picked up where he left off some ten years ago with his debut album, A Prayer for the Soul of Layla. That album brought musicians from many traditions together, calling out in spiritual chants, singing elaborate minarets of melody, all deployed over a lush, world fusion soundscape. Sharifi does it again, with many of the same singers, on One.
We already knew Jamshied Sharifi’s work before his solo album. He’s composed soundtracks for Clockstoppers, Muppets from Space and Harriet the Spy. But those film credits don’t really prepare you for the sound of Jamshied Sharifi’s personal music. For that, you have to look to his work with the techno tribal group, Mo Boma. In fact, bassist Sküli Sverrisson and guitarist/percussionist Carsten Tiedemann from Mo Boma appear on One. They’re part of a global cast laying down Sharifi’s transcultural grooves and haunting moods, continuing the "One-World" view of this international musician born of an Iranian father and American mother in Topeka, Kansas.
Jamshied Sharifi crosses global traditions, mixing instruments from Mexico, Africa and the middle east in percussively melodic arrangements with his keyboards and electronic wind instrument. In this exotic sound world, he creates a home for artists like longtime collaborator, Hassan Hakmoun, the Gnawa musician who prowls the sky with his desert cry and plucked sintir. Veteran mystical singer, Iranian-born Sussan Deyhim, graces a couple of tracks with her throaty, sensually imploring voice and singer-songwriter Paula Cole taps into a different, more ecstatic side on tracks like "A Charlotte Sky."
Jamshied Sharifi’s A Prayer for the Soul of Layla was our CD of the year in 1997. One might join it in 2008, but for now, it’s the easy choice for our March CD of the Month. - John Diliberto