Rahman Asadollahi

The world's premier Azerbaijani accordion player musician, composer and conductor, Rahman Asadollahi performed in Europe, Asia and America. While conducting Azerbaijani concerts in Iran from 1969 to 1985, the artist became known as the Master of all accordion players. He won the first prize among 650 players of "All European Accordion and Harmonica Championship" in Switzerland, 1995. Rahman Asadollahi has become a living legend for the Azerbaijani people and the lovers of accordion music. Since 1999 this incredibly talented composer and performing artist lives in the United States.

“Ana”           Rahman Asadollahi

Contents:
1.Ay Giz
2.Gozum Yashla Dolmasin
3.Ana
4.Hedjran
5.Vessal
6.Su Sapmishham
7.Gonakh Gelajak
8.Khatereh
9.Solmaz
10.Zobol
11.Lezgi
Total time: 71:42 min.

"One native star is Rahman Asadollahi, a virtuoso on the garmon…His music has a dreamlike quality, blending Middle Eastern rhythms with a European melodic structure …"
Max Millard, SFWeekly

“A dissident songwriter and political exile, Asadollahi brought a Middle Eastern soloist passion to his playing. His improvisation in the modes of Shur and Segah were reminiscent of the late Argentinean bandoneon maser, Astor Piazolla, in their absolute authority.”
David M. Roche, New California Media

“The winner of the 1995 All European Hohner Accordion and Harmonica Championships, Rahman Asadollahi travels the world performing the soulful and passionate music of the Azerbaijani people.“
Bloomington Times, IL

“In Azerbaijan there is no one who does not know who Rahman Asadollahi is.”
Azadlik Magazine

Rahman Asadollahi, the world’s foremost garmon (Azerbaijani accordion) player, teams up with the Orchestra of Azerbaijani Folkloric Music, conducted by nationally renown Professor Nariman Azimsoff, and his brother master drummer Vehid Asadollahi, to feature some of the best loved traditional Azeri music, poured out with profound sensitivity from Rahman’s 90 year-old garmon. The Itzak Perlman of garmon in 20th century, this master’s ability to move listeners is surpassed only by his ravishing original compositions, which plumb the depths of musical sensuality.

From the achingly romantic and heroic “Ay Giz” to nostalgic tender stirrings of “Gozum Yashla Dolmasin”, where trembling notes fall like tear drops at unwilled partings; from an intense lovers chase danced through a lively tumble of music in “Vessal” to the plaintive cries of the garmon cascading down a series of intricate improvisations in “Hedjran”, Asadollahi’s music is bound to steal your heart and transport you to a world where extreme beauty and pain find lingering union.

The first prize winner among 650 players at the All European Accordion and Harmonica Championship in Switzerland in 1995, Asadollahi was a featured master artist at the first annual San Francisco World Music Festival in 2000. For 16 years, concert engagements have taken Asadollahi throughout the Republic of Azerbaijan, on Iranian and Azeri radio programs. Since 1985, he has toured and performed in Turkmenistan, England, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, arriving to the US in 1999.

A politically exiled artist since 1985, though, Asadollahi shares his people’s story of repression. To hear his music is to taste the dreams and laments of the Azeri people, a mistreated people denied of their basic human rights. Though deep and profoundly tragic, his is a music that truly celebrates, is drunk on life, and marvels at the beauty of being alive in spite of suffering. Technically brilliant, he conveys an amazing understanding of human pain and glory.

Emotionally appealing, Azeri music is full of dramatic flares, trembling embellishments, cascading improvisations, and slow meandering descents ending in a swift punctual finish. Deeply rooted, this music stems from a natural progression of Southwest Asian and middle European roots. Meaning literally “Land of the Fire”, Azerbaijan is home to a central Asian Turkic people who occupy what is now an ex-Soviet Republic in the Caucasus and a Northern part of Iran. Azeri music employs mughams, similar to Turkish makams and Persian dasgahs, involving free improvisations, instrumental melody, and folk motifs to evoke certain moods.

“Ana—Traditional Music of Azerbaijan” captures the passionate emotions of the Azeri people—from nostalgic memories and sorrowful partings to expansive dreams—like deep rivers bursting at times into celebratory dancing. Plunging the heights and depths of human emotions, weaving and winding through corridors of time, Asadollahi sounds out every square inch of meaning in Azeri music. Like a heroic spirit that does not die, no matter how many waves crash and plunge it, his music rises again and again under the wide open sky. And always, Asadollahi finishes like a man emerging from his trials triumphant, hope-filled, and deeply changed, with the songs of his struggling people forever carved on his heart.

Kutay Derin Kugay