Take The "A" Train

The centenary of jazz is being celebrated in a place you would least expect: Iran.  A mini retrospective of jazz films, currently pla...

Postscript January 6, 2016: "Paul Bley, a jazz pianist whose thoughtful but intuitive commitment to advanced improvisation became ...

T he whole color spectrum reflected in tasbihs, hanging from the shop windows. The smell of rosewater perfumes. Carpets and rugs piled insi...

If you’re a jazz aficionado, you’ll immediately assume from the cool sound of contra-bass, clarinet-bass and brushed drums that the p...

W omen in Iran: a hot topic, no matter how you look at it, from European feminists studying the country to Iranian men sipping cups of “...

For my fifth installment in Jazz Mirrors Iran , I'll look at a tune from a third country in which the secretive consociation between...

photo by Reza Hakimi In the fourth installment of my ten-week series exploring Iran through the world of jazz, I've looked at Iran...

Vank Cathedral in Iran [photo by Reza Hakiminejad] Two weeks ago I began a ten-week series (that now I might extend it to 12!) explo...

Last week, I began a ten-week series exploring jazz that reflects a part of Iran, both as an actual place on the map and as a pure crea...

photo by Reza Hakiminejad Imagine this: A tenor saxophone and bass mimic in sound the pace of rush hour walkers. A trumpet, soundi...

T he readers of this blog have probably noticed that lately I've been focusing on jazz in Hollywood films. There is no particular re...

The third State Department tour of the Middle East which sent Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on the bumpy roads of the troubled regi...

Happy Nowruz to Iranian Readers! Peace to you! Iran-- sometimes known as Persia, with an echo of 1001 Nights and dreamy cities of ...

Last night, my final broadcast of the Jazz for Iran radio programme was dedicated to the music and life of Dr. Lloyd Miller whom I...

Read it in English لويد ميلر، صوفي موسيقي جاز در سال 1336 یک خانواده متمول آمریکایی، بعد از سفري كه از آمريكا به ژاپن، خاو...

Lloyd Miller with Oud (known in Farsi as Barbat) In 1957, a family of wealthy Americans, after leaving Los Angeles for Japa...

Jazz in Iran? Yes, and no! Once upon a time, before the 1979 revolution, when oil's money was overflowing, a Queen and some of her ad...