Peter Giger and Family of Percussion

Peter Giger, as a matter of fact, Hans Peter Giger, master percussionist and outstanding bandleader, was born in Zurich, Switzerland, April 12th, 1939 and grew up in and near to Berne.

He is a professional musician, since 1958 when he toured with “Tremble Kids” with the musicians Oskar Klein, Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman, Joe Turner, Wild Bill Davison, Peanuts Holland. In 1960 after being a short guest performer in Armand Gordon’s Ragtime Band, moved to Paris playing with Bill Coleman, Stéphane Grapelli, Memphis Slim and so on.

In 1961 he played in Claude Bolling Sextet / Big Band. In 1963 he had an LP-recordings with Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorne, Alice Babs, a tour concert with Beryl Bryden, Diz Dizzley and Johnny Parker in Malaysia and Sarawak.

In 1964 he cooperated with tap-dancer Harold Nicholas and Renè Urtreger. From 1965 to 1968 he was a studio-musician in Paris, again with Claude Bolling.

In 1969 he moved back to Berne, worked with FOUR FOR JAZZ, Heinz Bigler, Isla Eckinger, Joe Haider, Gerd Dudek, Benny Bailey. He was the co-founder of the “Swiss Jazz School” and in 1970 he was the initiator of the first international Jazz Clinic in Wengen, Switzerland.

In 1972 he moved to Frankfurt / M., played in Albert Mangelsdorff Quintett, and til 1977 toured in Europe, Asia, Africa, Near East.

In 1973 he published his “neuen schlagzeugschule” Vol. I (out of print).

“Family of Percussion“

In 1975 he recorded his famous solo percussion LP: “family of percussion” and founded his famous label “nagara-records”.

In 1976 he formed trio “Giger-Lenz-Marron” and was the initiator and director of the first percussion-course in Weikersheim.

In 1977 he had a great solo performance at the Berliner Jazztage, published the “neue schlagzeugschule” Vol. II (out of print). Solo-LP was produced in the USA by the initiative of Max Roach and he founded the “FAMILY OF PERCUSSION (FOP)” with Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas.

In 1979 he recorded the “direct-to-disc”-LP: “Africa meets Europe” with Papa Oyeah Mackenzie (Ghana).

In 1980 he had an LP and a tour with FOP and Archie Shepp.

In 1984 with FOP went to India (New Delhi, Bombay, Madras and so on) to have concerts with Zakir Hussein, Umayalpuram K. Shivaraman and Palghat Raghu. Guests in Giger’s different groups: Nana Vasconcelos, Gerd Dudek, Wolfgang Dauner, Joachim Kühn, Steve Swallow, Michal Urbaniak, Victor Bailey, Alan Skidmore, Christian Escoudé, Sam Rivers, Chistof Lauer, John Schröder, Thomas Heidepriem and so on. He directed the “World Percussion and Jazz Jubilee” in Wengen/Switzerland.

In 1985 he started the collaboration with Mangelsdorff / Dauner and FOP – “Moon at noon”.

In 1986 he had a duo-concert with Max Roach at the Jazzfestival, Hofheim.

In 1988 he formed “Peter Giger Quartet” with Jasper van t’Hof, Tomasz Stanko and Vitold Rek.

In 1991 he formed “FOP and Friends” in Mozambique. He made a Fusion music with timbila-musicians from Zavala (Leader: Eduardo Durao) and the he performed in “Peter Giger Trio” with Gerd Dudek and Vitold Rek.

In 1992 he formed “FOP and Friends” with senegalese Group SAF SAP and had his second journey to Mozambique. He made “JAZZ meets TIMBILA” at the JazzFest Berlin and offered the Live-CD “Mozambique meets Europe”.

In 1994 he moved to Meissen (Saxony) and founded the Sound-Studio. He had a tour with his trio and with FOP in Eastern Germany.

In 1996 the third visit of FOP to Mozambique happened and he participated in festivals in Zavala and Maputo.

In 1999, the Film: HERR DER TROMMELN (Lord of the drums) “the Peter Giger Story” was produced and he initiated “Association Worldmuseum of Percussion-Instruments Dresden”, with teachers and professors of the music-academy “Carl Maria von Weber”, a. o. Siegfried Ludwig, Günter “Baby” Sommer and Bernhard Schmidt.

In 2000, FOP participated at the “Euro Art Meeting” in Wroclav, Poland: “Ethnic Percussion Symphony” by Sambor Dudzinski

In 2002 – 2003 he moved to Ticino (Switzerland), and he had some solo concerts, regular participation at “Perugia Classico” and concerts at the Film-Festival Locarno.

In 2004 he had a Solo Tour in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Senegal).

In 2005 he had a concert in Dakar with “Géwél Rhythm Begg Falou” for the Goethe-Institute.

In 2006 the Issue of “A Drum is a Woman” and appearance of the double CD by Intuition Records ocured.

In 2007 he had some concerts at the Film-Festival Locarno and will tour with a nine piece Ensemble “World Family of Percussion Pack” in Germany (30 years Family of Percussion).

The Interview of Persian Mirror Online Magazine with Peyman Nasehpour

PersianMirror had an interview with me and now I have been informed by Ms. Shabnam Rezaei that it has been published today and it will be on the cover of the magazine for one week and the permanent link is:

INTERVIEW WITH MUSICIAN PEYMAN NASEHPOUR BY SHABNAM REZAEI

Born in Tehran to a family of musician, Peyman Nasehpour is one of the foremost experts on Persian music and more importantly wonderful instruments such as the daf and ghaval. We had a chance to talk to Peyman about his art form.

Shabnam Rezaei: Tell us about your childhood and what it was like growing up in Iran.

Peyman Nasehpour: My parents are both Azerbaijani so, as a mother tongue, I learnt Azeri and then Persian. My parents say I was interested in rhythm and drumming from an early age. My childhood was full of music, since my father is a professional master of Persian classical vocal music. Though my brothers, Pooyan and Parham, became instrumentalists, I was interested in percussion, so at the early age of 9, I had the honor to be the tonbak student of the late maestro Nasser Farhangfar, the great master of tonbak and one of the most popular drummers of Iran. My father used to want me to perform solos for our guests. I remember one of the first private concerts of mine was for my English teacher, Mrs. Ferdos Navabi. My first public concert was in 1988. Maestro Ali Akbar Shekarchi, the great master of kamancheh suggested that I play with some instrumentalists all of whom were much older than me.

SR: What have you learned from your father, the great Ostad Nasrollah Nasehpour?

PN: He is and has been more than a father for me. I have learned many things from my father but in the field of music, I learned of his empathy with the music and his effort to convey his knowledge to people. He has devoted all his life to training professional vocalists and some of his students are now famous vocalists in Iran and abroad. More or less I am following his line: to promote Iranian culture. Of course I am familiar with the radif repertoire of Persian vocal music, since my father has taught many of his students in our house in Tehran.

SR: Where did you go after Iran and how did you get started in playing tonbak, daf, and ghaval?

PN: I moved to Germany. Now beside my mathematical studies, I play in the solo form or with my brothers here and there. One of the workshops in Madrid was on “computational music theory” in Politecnica de Madrid University. I tried to explain how one can computerize some of the rhythms played in Persian, Azerbaijani and Kurdish music.

SR: Tell us a little about these wonderful Persian instruments?

PN: Well, as you know, I have written several articles about the drums played in Iran, and some other countries that are culturally related to Iran. Among those drums, my focus has been on the tonbak, ghaval and daf. The tonbak is the Persian goblet shaped drum and the chief percussion instrument played in Iran. It is played in all genres of Iranian / Persian music. The tonbak was considered an accompaniment instrument before the late maestro Hossein Tehrani, the father of modern tonbak. Only after this great master did the tonbak find a more important role in Iranian music. Though Iranian drummers need to work very hard to find a better status in music, thanks to the great masters of tonbak, this drum has become more recognised. The ghaval is the Azerbaijani frame drum. This drum is played in all genres of Azeri music, from folk to pop. Fortunately this drum has been promoted by American frame drummers and it is more or less known to fans of frame drums. One of the best ghaval players that I have seen is maestro Latif Tahmasebi-zadeh, a great ghaval player from Ardebil who now lives in Tehran. I have had the honor to be his student.

And finally, the daf is the frame drum played mainly in Kurdistan. But it is now in all genres of Iranian music. The promotion of this drum is due to Bijan Kamkar, the famous musician belonging to the Kamkar Music Group. The Daf is historically important too, since great Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafiz have mentioned this drum several times in their works. The Daf that was played in Sufi music in khanghah (Temple of Sufis) has been integrated into Iranian music successfully. One can learn more about these drums from my articles published in Internet, for example the one published on PersianMirror.

SR: What is the biggest misconception of Iran you face when trying to explain Iran to non-Iranians?

PN: When I say to non-Iranians that I am from Iran, they think I am Arab! They think Iran is just a desert! They really wonder when I explain that Iran has very high mountains like Damavand and Sabalan. I remember one of the artists in the PersianMirror explained that it was our fault that we were not able to promote our culture in the world. In my opinion she is right to some extent I am not disappointed at the misconceptions about Iran and Iranians. Instead of being unhappy we need to work really hard to promote our Iran and Iranian culture.

SR: What do you hope to achieve with your music and your online presence?

PN: I like to promote my culture all over the world, to show the positive faces of my country and my culture, and with my music and my online presence, I like to promote peace, love, respect and mutual understanding. I thank you and the PersianMirror for helping me in this matter.

SR: Tell us about your most recent project.

PN: My big project has been to promote the drums all over the world. Though thanks to some percussion websites that have published my articles on the Internet, (some of my articles have been online since 2000), I have been able to introduce the drums to some percussion lovers, but I am aware that I am at the beginning of the project and there is a long way to go. You can go to www.rhythmweb.com/peyman for more info.

SR: Desert Island. Three things. What will you take?

PN: My drums, my books and the Internet!

PersianMirror Quikfacts:

Full Name: Peyman Nasehpour

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite City: Tehran

Favorite Dish: Almost every Iranian food

Favorite Drink: Apple Juice

Languages: Azerbaijani, Persian and English.

Currently Reading: Mathematical books related to Algebra and “Where Mathematics Comes From: How the embodied mind bring mathematics into being”.

A brief history of Persian music websites in Internet

The author has been online since 1997. At that time there were a few websites on Persian music. Some of them were not professional and among them only Kereshmeh (in English) was great. It is online since 1995 and is still online and even now its information is great.

In 2000, Iran Melody, started its activities in selling Iranian music productions. The website is in English and Persian and sill online. The other old website on Persian music is Shayda of M. R. Lotfi that is still online, though it is a long time that it has not been updated.

One of the professional websites that is online since 2000 and is still useful for Iranian percussion lovers, is Tombak Network (in English). Tombak Network was established by Hormoz Dilmaghani and perhaps is the best resource for tonbak and Persian percussion.

In 2000, also many Persian music lovers started to establish Yahoo Groups discussion forums. Today some of them are not very active.

In 2001, some big websites on Persian music came to existance. Among them one can mention to Persian Art Music (it was mainly in Persian and now it is about two years that it is inactive, though still online) and Iran Flamenco that later it became a part of Art Music (in Persian). At those years other websites for music became online like Soroush Press (in Persian) and IRIB (both in Persian).

One of the first Iranian artists that became online in 2001 was Reza Vali. In the same year the website of Beethoven Music Center was introduced that is still active.

In 2002, Peyman Nasehpour (Iranian hand drummer), was one of the first Iranian musicians who offered his personal website, peyman and his tonbak, powered by tripod, that is still online, though he published his first work in Internet on Nov. 30th, 2000 at Tombak Network. He has been so active in promoting Persian percussion in Internet.

In 2003 at least 50 Yahoo Groups discussion forum were active discussing about Persian music and musicians that still some of them are active, but perhaps the best is Iran Zamin Music (in Persian) run by Maziar Ansari and some other moderators.

In 2004, when Iranian blogging fever started, many wrote about Persian music in their weblogs hosted by Persianblog. Today only a few of them are active. In second round Iranian blogging fever, many bloggers started to use Blogfa that many of them are very active. One can mention to Tahrir, Siyahmashgh and so on.

One year ago a very important event happened. Some young musicians gathered to create a website for gathering all useful links of Persian music in one place and linking to important music news. This website is Sol.ir. Perhaps it is the best directory for Persian music websites and its music news section is updated every day.

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The main reference for this article is the great article of Sadjad Pourghannad published at HarmonyTalk.com.

The great master of daf and Sufi music, Khalifeh Mirza Agha Ghosi passes away

Just some minutes ago a friend from Iran informed me that Khalifeh Mirza Agha Ghosi passed away in Sanandaj the center of the Kurdistan of Iran.

More info about him: Ostad Mirza Agha Ghosi

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پرنده نادر پرکشید

The News in Persian

Press conference for Morgenland Festival 2007

Yesterday on 16th July 2007, press conference for Morgenland Festival 2007 was held in Rathaus of Osnabrück, Germany. In this important event the director of the festival, Michael Dreyer, the Mayor of Osnabrück city, some of the sponsors, journalists from different medias and some other people had participated. In this news conference, Nasehpour Ensemble (Parham and Peyman) offered a short music performance for the participants.

The Osnabrück Newspaper that is the media partner of the Morgenland Festival 2007 reported the news.

For more info about Morgenland Festival 2007 programs please go to the following pages:

Morgenland Festival 2007

Morgenland Festival 2007 in Osnabrueck, Germany

Nasehpour Ensemble will have a concert and a workshop in Morgenland Festival 2007 held in Osnabrück, Germany.

Morgenland Festival presents Middle Eastern music from traditional up to avant-garde style from 19 August to 2 September. Some believe that the knowledge of Arab and Persian culture is frighteningly small and therefore the aim of the yearly festival since 2005 is to introduce Middle Eastern music and culture. Indeed most of Western instruments are originated in Middle East.

Within only two years morgenland festival has been considered one of the biggest music festivals of Germany. It has been so important that many international mass-medias like New York Times have reported that. For more info, one may go to its official page:

Morgenland Festival (in German)