Feeling good, about Billie Holliday in Iran

The universal sound of life in an era of hostilities

This is a rejoinder to Mehfil’s post titled ‘I’m feeling good, am I?.

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music,” - Aldous Huxley.

I came to Nina Simone through Richard Linklater’s masterpieces, ‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Before Sunset’, and ‘After Midnight.’ The movies introduced me to her music via a lifelong crush of Julie Delphy & Ethan Hawke because of scenes like this one:

These classics have been adapted in India too, via 'the superb ‘Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai'.’

At any rate, Nina Simone is always wonderful listening. That brings me to the other musical genius in Mehfil’s post; Billie Holliday. I have been a fan of the woman greats of jazz and blues since my engineering days. Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald (my favorite), Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Etta James et al have stayed with me.

Who can forget Ella forgeting the lyrics of ‘Mac the knife’ from Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Threepenny Opera’ and riffing to a legendary composition in Berlin?

But those meanderings have led me to another crush, Rana Farhan of Iran, who now lives in exile in the United States. I encountered her through the superb film, ‘No one knows about Persian cats.’ back when Netflix used to be a CD service. The music from the film was far out. The movie itself was a loose plot centered around a theme that was meant to promote the underground music scene of Iran.

The movie has superb music, but the appearance of Rana Farhan blew my mind. How was this demure woman, a fan of Billie Holliday, able to churn out jazz interpretations of Omar Khayyam, Sa’adi, Hafez and Rumi? How mesmerizing was her voice?

I became such a fan that I went to her concert at Yoshi’s at Oakland a few years ago. I was the only non Persian in the audience.

Here is her interpretation of a Rumi poem. The translation is in the youtube description.

My lover became intoxicated, look at his eyes,

His stories are drunken, his speech is slurred,

Sometimes he falls this way, sometimes he falls that way,

These are the signs of one who is drunk,

His eyes drive everyone mad, but don’t try to make me fear him,

Because I’m drunk and I fear no one, not even the nightstick,

Oh love, Allah, Allah, The king of kings has gotten drunk,

Get up, grab his locks and pull him near,

My thoughts are all about the lover,

I’ll put my life before him, I want to kiss him, fill his mouth with gold,

A face like a flower, his voice like a nightingale,

I want to learn all his desires,

This face of his is just a mask, in fact he is a light from the universe,

Look past his beauty, the joy comes from his soul,

It will make the winter change to spring, make the night change to day,

This world is dead without the light from beyond,

This world is dead without the light from beyond.

Here’s her interpretation of Khayyam.

But the film also had radical music. Such as this hip hop piece by Hichkas.

One can despise the regime and still feel empathy for the people.

Sure Joe Sacco is one-sided and does not turn his vitriol towards Hamas, but there is still a truth evident here, no?

Reminds me of ‘Sarah’ by the late Rim Banna. This innocent kid was shot by Israeli forces who might or might not have aimed their weapons at her deliberately.

We are a complicated world in which Israeli orthodox citizens can sing an Arabic song from an Algerian musical group.

Hamas committed untold atrocities on Israelis and they deserve being brought to justice. But did every Palestinian support Hamas? Having read so many books from that region, I am not so sure.

Can we stop the bombs already?

….and listen to music?