Vashaan Ensemble and Davod Azad: An evening of Persian Sufi music and dance, presented by Caravan World Rhythms, Saturday, Jan. 23 at 8 p.m., at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre. Tickets: $30/$35/$50 (centennialtheatre.com).
For the theme of their new album, the members of the Vashaan Persian Music Ensemble chose love, something that's universal and they hoped would speak to all audience members, regardless of their cultural background. The record, Dolate Eshgh - Reign of Love, features the poetry of Rumi, a widely popular 13th century Persian poet.
"There's so many things that are parallel and relevant to what we are witnessing today that happened in his life.. .. His whole life he was fleeing and he was in such a chaotic state where the world's at war. Despite all that he becomes known as an ambassador of love," says ensemble member Hamin Honari.
"I think that still has a lot of meaning to anyone, regardless of culture or where they're from. We're just trying to share that with not just a Persian audience, but everyone," he adds.
The Vashaan Ensemble is set to mark the release of Dolate Eshgh -Reign of Love, tomorrow night, at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre at a special concert presented by Caravan World Rhythms. The performance will also feature internationally renowned Sufisinger Davod Azad, from Iran, and whirling dancers Raqib Burke and Lindsey Ridgway.
Honari, an East Vancouver resident, says having Azad join them for the show was a "big coincidence." The day after Centennial was booked, the ensemble heard Azad was scheduled to be in town on the same weekend. Longtime fans of the artist, "we thought it would be great if he could join us and we're honoured that he is," he says.
Preparations for the performance have been going well. "We just started rehearsing a few nights ago with him and it's so exciting. After every rehearsal, it's almost like you feel pumped up. It's energizing," says Honari.
The Vashaan Ensemble was formed in 2011, bringing together a group of musicians who had worked together on different projects in the past, this time for an initiative that focused on Southeastern Iran, (Baluchistan and Southern Khorasan).
"The rehearsals, they turned out to be a lot of fun and the music was good too. It's hard to find a group of people that you enjoy working with all the time. It's really easy to play music with these people. I think that's why we've just continued. We always look for different projects, different things that we want to do. Everyone has different backgrounds musically, and not just musically, but people come from different parts of the country, they have different educations in music, they have different styles that they play. We just exchange and learn from each other," says Honari.
Joining Honari in the group are his father, Reza (kamanche), and mother, Fathieh (vocals), along with family friends Ali Razmi (tar/setar), and couple Saina Khaledi (santour) and Ali Sajjadi (oud/barbat).
Honari plays percussion with the group, specifically two traditional Persian hand drums, the tombak and daf, both of which he offers instruction on at North Vancouver's Nava Art Centre. He also serves as artistic director of Vancouver's Big World Band, currently on hiatus but planning to be back up and running soon.
Honari was exposed to music at an early age, the result of a musical family which stems back to his grandfather on his father's side.
"His last name, Honari, actually means 'artistic,' or 'someone who follows the arts,'" he says.
Honari's grandfather sang and played the violin, and his grandmother was also a vocalist and played hand drums. His father followed in their footsteps and he and his brother, Hidayat, did as well after their family moved to Canada when Honari was one-years-old, emigrating from the remote province of Baluchistan, Iran.
"We came as refugees in 1985," he says.
Both Honari and his brother gravitated towards music. While Hidayat plays traditional Persian instruments as well, after studying jazz at Capilano University, he's currently on tour with Broadway musical IF/THEN, featuring Idina Menzel.
Honari is looking forward to this weekend's performance. "I'm always thankful because the North Shore has always been so supportive of our music. A lot of our concerts happen there and I'm glad that people are still going out and seeing concerts.. .. It's a great place to work and to play this music," he says.
Honari is also grateful for the opportunity to work with Caravan World Rhythms once again. In fact their current album project grew out of their last collaboration, a 2013 Sufimusic and dance concert at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
"A few years ago Robert Benaroya, who works for Caravan, he did a concert and it was supposed to be based on Sufimusic and it was the Sufimusic of both Turkey and Iran. We were part of this big concert and wrote a bunch of songs. .. and after writing the music we thought, 'Well, this is a pretty good start.' So we decided to continue in that direction and spent over a year writing new music, arranging music (and) recording," he says.
Caravan is impressive in its efforts to provide continuous live local cultural entertainment featuring artists representing a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds from Canada and around the world, says Honari.
"The fact that you can have music and there's people out there that are bringing music from all over the world to this spot, here, kind of allows you to travel without actually leaving home," he says.
"It's great that these things are being presented and people are spending time to promote such things. It makes the city more lively and I think it makes it more interesting," he adds.
After Saturday's album release event, the members of the Vashaan Ensemble plan to split off to pursue different initiatives before reuniting for their next project.
For example, Honari and Razmi are set to perform March 22-26 at Neworld Theatre's Doost (Friend), a story about heritage, compassion and community, presented by The Cultch in Vancouver.
Dolate Eshgh -Reign of Love will be available on iTunes next month.
