Moor Music: Aromates and "Ritournelles"

Today's tune is by the French ensemble Aromates and its leader and percussionist Michèle Claude. The ensemble fuses the ancient and contemporary, uses old and new instruments, and explores into gypsy and Cuban rhythms and jazz in its music. It's first album, Jardin des Myrtes (Garden of Myrtles - 2005), features traditional Arab-Andalusian songs played by the musicians on traditional instruments. The music takes you straight back to an Umayyad court in Spain - you might even be in the presence of the Caliph himself. Today's tune, Ritournelles can be found as the 8th track on Jardin des Myrtes.

A Truth Self Evident: Maher Zain and "Freedom (Acoustic Version)"

Today's random tune is by Maher Zain, a 34 year old Swedish-Muslim R&B singer of Lebanese origin whose Wikipedia page claims that he has more Facebook fans than any other Muslim musician. His family emigrated to Sweden when he was eight and studied aeronautical engineering in college. He started his music career when he teamed up with Moroccan-Swedish producer RedOne and followed him to New York where he produced US artists such as Kat DeLuna. He eventually returned home to Sweden and re-engaged with his Islamic faith, which led him to move out of producing and into a career as a singer/songwriter of R&B songs with a strong Muslim/religious theme. He sings mainly in English, but has also released some of his most popular songs in other languages. He maintains a strong following in Malaysia and Indonesia. This song, Freedom (Acoustic Version), is a single that he released in 2011.

Give Me Moor: Aromates and "Ritournelles"

One of my favorite books when I was growing up was a giant Readers Digest tome that laid out all the histories of all the known civilizations in the world. I would pore over that book, looking at the maps of the civilizations. The ancient civilizations were the ones that interested me most - those in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans and their war for Mediterranean supremacy with the Carthaginians. One thing that I found really interesting, however, was the rise of the Islamic world after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, and how they nearly matched Rome by encircling the Mediterranean. If the Umayyad Caliphate had continued to expand, or if later Vienna hadn't held against the Ottomans, the history of Europe might have been much different. On the other hand, if the Moors had not conquered most of Spain, the history of Spain might have been much different also. Spain was largely under the rule of Muslims for almost 500 years, forging a deep connection with what would become Spanish society. The influence of the Moors is everywhere in Spain - its architecture, its language, and its music to name a few. It is said that the last Muslim ruler in Spain, Muhammad XII of Granada, reined his horse on a small hill overlooking Granada and the Alhambra and wept and sighed before turning away and riding into exile.

Today's tune is by the French ensemble Aromates and its leader and percussionist Michèle Claude. The ensemble fuses the ancient and contemporary, uses old and new instruments, and explores into gypsy and Cuban rhythms and jazz in its music. It's first album, Jardin des Myrtes (Garden of Myrtles - 2005), features traditional Arab-Andalusian songs played by the musicians on traditional instruments. The music takes you straight back to an Umayyad court in Spain - you might even be in the presence of the Caliph himself. Today's tune, Ritournelles can be found as the 8th track on Jardin des Myrtes.

Transcendence: Youssou N'Dour and "Allah"

Even though I was raised Catholic and still attend Mass, I consider myself open to pretty much most religious beliefs and practices, and especially if there is a beauty that surrounds it. There are not many religions that don't have some type of beauty, so that means I can usually find something in everything. Occasionally, I can find a transcendent experience. One of those experiences came in Turkey when, as I was walking through a bazaar next to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the call to prayer came over the speakers, and I stood there for the length of time the call to prayer lasted, grinning like an idiot because of the beauty of moment. Currently, I've been working my way through the Ramayana, and I'm amazed at the mix of history and mythology in that epic work. Yesterday, Megan and I were in San Francisco and we stopped into a Russian Orthodox church (ironically after coming out of a bar) and the inside was stunning in its iconography and its stained glass. Religion has served as an essential inspiration behind so much art that even the most irreligious or anti-religious among us cannot deny its influence.

I count today's song among those pieces of beauty that come out of religion. Youssou N'Dour is already a giant among African musicians. A singer, songwriter, composer, percussionist, actor and politician, he is one of the most visible personas of Senegal. A man born in a griot family, he didn't take the traditional griot path but he is considered a modern griot anyway, who was the driving force behind the popular Senegalese music called mbalax. He came to world notice thanks to his collaborations with Western musicians like Peter Gabriel, but his music stands on its own. This song, Allah, is from his 2004 CD Egypt. The album combines West and North African music, as well as instrumentation in its use of the West African kora and the Arab oud. It promotes the tolerance of Senegalese Islam, and the album won a Grammy award.