In the USA

When the whole world seems to be losing its collective mind, music remains an important--sometimes only--means of communication between battling factions who actually know very little about one another. Ustad (an honorific granted to Muslim musical icons) Omar is a revered master of the rabab, a short-necked plucked lute with a plangent, gutty tone. He performs here with a youthful Indian tabla (a hand drum capable of wide variations of pitch) player named Zakhir Hussain, who has since achieved international stardom. Stylistically, the music seems to have much in common with Indian classical traditions, although it is less languid, more direct, and not constructed over an underlying drone. These five tracks were recorded during a 1974 performance at the University of Washington in Seattle. Both men are captured at their fiery best, goading one another into explosive bursts of complex time signatures and breathtaking melodic invention. --Christina Roden

In the USA

In the USA

In the USA

In the USA

In the USA

While the Sufi musical tradition of Pakistan is well documented in the popular press because of the work of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his predecessors, the Sabri Brothers (both represented with excellent tracks in this collection), the wealth of great art from this religious culture is often left unheard. This two-CD set rectifies the problem with style and beauty. Not only Pakistan, but Egypt, Senegal, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and many other countries in Asia and the Middle East have rich traditions of devotional music from loosely defined Sufi roots, from the simplest solo singer to lush orchestras of percussion, harmoniums, and massed voices. Each of the 21 tracks on Sufi Soul is worth your attention: the incredible passion of a women's choir from Uzbekistan; the sparse, gentle flute solo of ney master Hassan Kassayi; a rare tanbur (lute) and vocal track by Ostad Elahi; a Balachi song for sorud (fiddle). There are standout tracks that need to be mentioned. The frame drum and qanun (zither) come together in Ensemble Al-Kindi for a dramatic, almost avant-garde feeling. An amazing Persian singer, Khatereh Parvaneh, presents the poetry of Rumi in a piece in dastgah shour; she performs with minimum ornamentation to maximum effect, accompanied only by a hammered zither. Senegalese artist Musa Dieng Kala offers one of the most stirring vocal pieces on the set, an a cappella masterwork. As with most of the Network sets, this is a gorgeous package, with great photos and excellent liner notes on the history and the music, in English, French, and German. --Louis Gibson

In the USA