Dear friends,
I hope you've had a wonderful summer!
I am SUPER EXCITED about my upcoming concert produced and presented by "Live Nation" at the Orpheum Theater, one of the most beautiful theaters in Los Angeles. As always my amazing stellar collaborators, John Beasley, Richard Horowitz, Jon Ossman, Greg Ellis, other very special guests and I will perform some of our original compositions including three of my new pieces from my multi media project inspired by the works and life of the great Iranian poetess and icon Forough Farrokhzad, plus eclectic interpretations of classic pieces from Persian popular and traditional repertoire and Sohrab Pournazeri’s beautiful new composition. Also very excited to perform Joe Jackson’s arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Caravan, which I performed in Farsi on Joe’s new CD The Duke and a great cover of Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man.

I Hope to see you at the concert! Event: Orpheum Theater LA Concert
Place: Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles
Date: Oct 14, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm






In Oct the motion picture "ARGO" (Warner Bros) a brilliant film based on an amazing true story directed by Ben Affleck and produced by George Clooney will be in movie theaters (Oct12). I am delighted to have collaborated with composer Alexandre Desplat on his beautiful score for Argo. It was really inspiring to attend the orchestra sessions at the Sony studios and have Alexandre, Ben Affleck and George Clooney in the studio while I was recording.

As an Iranian in exile it is hard not to be saddened by revisiting a very dark historical moment, which happened to my country after the Islamic Republic imposed its blind orthodoxy. Argo takes you to the heart of the hostage crisis in Tehran 1979-1980. It's a true story told with great insight and believe-it-or-not humor.

Don't miss the movie, the rumors promise some upcoming awards, deservedly!

More:
thewrap.com
hollywoodreporter.com
Watch Trailer





Here’s a clip from a beautiful show at the Grand Performances 2011 with my great band. Mitch Forman, Richard Horowitz, Will Calhoun, Greg Ellis, Eric Klerks and our very special guests Sohrab. Pournazeri and Mohsen Namjoo. Watch Trailer





Some of you are aware of the great new release by Joe Jackson, "The Duke". It's a brilliant album of reinterpretations of Duke Ellington's timeless music. Joe and I collaborated on Duke's "Caravan" and by his request I translated the song and sing it in Farsi. It is a memorable track with a super cool arrangement.

Joe Jackson will perform at the Orpheum on Oct 6th and I will have a cameo appearance to perform Caravan with him and his band. This is also a "Live Nation" event.

Event: Joe Jackson
Place: Orpheum Theater LA
Date: Saturday, Oct 6, 2012
Time: 8:00 pm




As for my media project inspired by the works and life of Forough Farrokhzad and produced by the great LA based Farhang Foundation and I, the fall will be dedicated to finishing the score for the piece. As mentioned above I will be performing 3 of my new compositions for this project at the Orpheum Theater on Oct 11th.





My recent Zeitgeist musical set with my friends the Israeli trio Maetar has been beautifully reviewed, so I would like to share fragments of a couple of them with you:

If you have a chance to ever hear this amazing artist in person, do not miss the chance. She has one of the great vocal instruments in the world and what she is able to accomplish with her voice is unbelievable. -Hollywood Today

"What this woman accomplished with her voice was a revelation. She created an atmosphere in which we could no longer believe in the current political fire that is ready to ignite the spaces that separate Iran from Israel, from the United States, and from most of the Western World. Sussan Deyhim had a smile that transcended every border man has ever created. It was art and artists who united Iranian and Jew on the stage.. -Hollywood Today

The rest of the year will be full of surprises. I so hope to see you on some or all the events.