Reviews of 1001 Nights Orchestra
An Evening with Munajot Yulchieva
On a nice evening in Austin, Texas, Munajot Yulchieva, the National singer of Uzbekistan was invited to sing at a private gathering at the residence of Texas Music Office director, Casey Monahan. 1001 Nights Orchestra's Kamran Hooshmand was there and joined her on a song. Read more about this magical experience in a review blog article by Joe Nick Patoski here.
You can listen to samples of Munojot's voice or purchase her CDs at Amazon.com or click here.
The ensemble makes it to the cover story of Austin's popular The Good Life magazine.
The July 2003 issue of The Good Life features an extensive article entitled One City, Many Grooves by Rachel Proctor. The article covers the World music scene in Austin, Texas, including an interview with the founder of 1001 Nights Orchestra, Kamran Hooshmand. Pick up a free copy around Austin. For a list of locations or to read the article online please go here.
New CD tops Texas Top 10 list of best CDs of 2002!
1001 Nights Orchestra's new CD, "Music from the Middle East & Beyond", has won the number one spot in the annual Texas Top 10 selection for best CDs of 2002!
The annual poll which includes Top 10 lists by several of Austin Chronicle's music critics. In this poll, the mostly world music critic David Lynch has placed the Middle Eastern orchestra's new CD in the first place. "Music from the Middle East & Beyond" also appears on the jazz critic and KUT radio's Jazz, Etc. host Jay Trachtenberg's Top 10 list in the #6 spot.
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Austin Chronicle gives 1001 Nights new CD a Four Star Rating!
By World Music Critic David Lynch
October 11, 2002
As the title implies, Music From the Middle East & Beyond travels a broad cultural tack. The Austin-based international all-star collective, led by Iranian singer/multi-instrumentalist Kamran Hooshmand, features such stalwart musicians as accordionist Don Weeda (Slavadillo), Lauren Dealbert (Divahn), Armenian clarinetist Ken Maranian, Lisa Schneider, and bassist Mark Rubin (Rubinchik's Yiddische Band). And Hooshmand's no slouch either, playing no fewer than eight instruments, including the Persian hammered dulcimer, nylon-string guitar, and Afghan lute. No surprise then that the Orchestra has so many varied accomplishments, including headlining ACC's International Festival, rousing concerts in venues like Bertram Hall, several live radio performances, and singular events like their award-winning original score to the silent film great, The Thief of Bagdad. Picture this album, therefore, as a detailed, rich-color snapshot of the band's air sculpture to date. And an exceptional one at that. The lyrics convey emotion effortlessly, but instrumental melodies and rhythms have to work harder to break through our oftentimes slack-jawed circadian existence. But when they do -- from an anonymous Black Sea tune and a wandering Jewish composition to an Afghani folk melody and Greek rave-up -- they affect just a little more, go a bit deeper. So much so that song titles don't have to be referenced. It's that good.
Best Single Silent Film Revival
Thief of Bagdad with Kamran Hooshmand & the 1001 Nights Orchestra
Excerpt
from the Austin Chronicle
Critics Picks for Best of Austin 1999
Issue September 24, 1999
It's hard to pick one standout from such an impressive field of performances, but this show deserves special praise. The sublime score was performed by 10 musicians playing over 25 different instruments. Kamran Hooshmand's unerring selection and arrangement of Middle Eastern songs displayed a perfect understanding of how silent film music has traditionally been used to express mood, situation, and personality. Even minor characters like the Indian Prince, the Mongol Prince, and the Persian Prince had his own theme song, appropriate to each region of origin. Bravo to all for this transcendent evening's entertainment.
The Sound and the Fury
By Jerry Renshaw
Excerpt from the Austin Chronicle
The Alamo Drafthouse's Silent Film Series
Issue September 10, 1999
While
Forsyth and The General was perhaps the funniest teaming of the series,
Kamran Hooshmand & the 1001 Nights Orchestra performing alongside Thief
of Bagdad was the most exotic. The film's plot involves a princess being
courted by three suitors -- a Chinese man, a Persian, and an Indian envoy
-- while Douglas Fairbanks plays a swashbuckling con artist who naturally
captures the prize. Given the Austin-based orchestra's instrumentation
-- zither, hammered dulcimer, Persian drum, sitar, and other indigenous
instruments -- 1001 Nights' tightly scripted performance came up with
themes that corresponded to the nationality of each suitor, while Fairbanks
(of course) had his own heroic theme music. The results were so successful
that the 1001 Nights Orchestra has considered taking the show on the road,
especially considering the amount of time that was devoted to putting
the score together.
Excerpt
from Hollywood's "Spin Doctor" Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Review
April 3, 1999
NOW, for the second perfect thing about the screening tonight.
Kamran Hooshmand and the 1001 NIGHTS ORCHESTRA.
They should go on tour with this movie. They'd sell out
Los Angeles and New York for weeks after the initial reviews. The score
they created was immense... so much so that the audience began clapping
to the beat and getting really really really into it by the end of the
film.
What was so special?
Well... (Big Breath) First off, the instrument selection included the following: Barbat ('ud), Saz (baglama), Santur (hammered dulcimer), Spanish Guitar, Daf (Kurdish frame drum), Riqq (Middle Eastern tambourine), Darabukkah (ceramic drum), zarb (tonbak) (a Persian Drum), tabla (Indian drum pair), Qanun (a Middle Eastern zither with 72 strings), Accordion, Acoustic Bass, Guitar, Clarinet, Zurna, Duduk (reed instruments), Violin, Indian Sitar, Asian/Far Eastern percussion, gongs, wind instruments, classical oboe, medieval oboe and wooden flute. And there were more. Ten fantastic musicians played these instruments to create a unique and fantastical sound to bathe the film with.
The score incorporated: Iranian folk song melodies, a Sephardic song, Persian folk song melodies, Greek/Macedonian folk tunes, Arabic tunes, Arab/Andalusian music, Egyptian music, Armenian folk music, Turkish folk music... as well as original music written by Kamran Hooshmand and... an Arabic version of the (Pulp Fiction-made famous) tune... MISERLU.
All of this music and film created a thrill, a charge that lit through the audience. Both young and old were cheering, clapping and excitedly waiting for the next moment as if their life depended upon it.
Beside me was an eleven-year-old boy, that by the end of the film had saucers for eyes, he was bouncing upon his knees in his chair sporadically clapping and looking at his mother with glee splashed upon his face.
The Thief of Bagdad
Alamo Draft House
By David Lynch
Excerpt
from Austin Chronicle Preview
Issue March 26, 1999
My
grandmother loved Douglas Fairbanks, and so did just about everyone else
in the early half of the century. Fairbanks was the original macho love
hunk and swashbuckling action star. And the brilliantly outlandish 1924
silent film The Thief of Bagdad was a high mark for both Fairbanks and
Hollywood. It's said that the film's sets -- a meld of deco, Orientalism,
and urban chic -- stretched for nearly seven acres. The film, so popular
that it was remade three times, is loosely based on one of the world's
most important literary works, One Thousand and One Nights. So who better
to play the live musical accompaniment than local Middle Eastern ensemble
1001 Nights? Led by multi-instrumentalist Kamran Hooshmand, 1001 Nights
boasts some of the best in the genre and for this unique performance will
feature special musical guests. The band will perform originals and standards
during the entire two-and-a-half hour classic, with characters and situations
having their own theme and special musical toys enhancing the sonic filmscape.
Shown on a 35mm archive print, this one is a sure sell-out. Slackers may
get lucky if there's a second screening on Saturday. Either way, don't
be caught sitting on your hands.
1001
Nights at Flipnotics, August 26
By David Lynch
Excerpt
from the Austin Chronicle
Live Shots
September 5, 1997
Screw that worthless unamplified MTV crap. There's no
such thing as decent acoustic music on a show that's designed to hawk
yet another citrus corn syrup drink or the latest overpriced athletic
shoe. The real shit is found in places like Flipnotics. Can you imagine
a band on MTV Unplugged asking the audience if they can hear the instruments?
Me neither, but that's exactly what happened at this show by 1001 Nights,
a local quartet that plays complex, soul-satisfying Middle Eastern music.
Lead by the visibly talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Kamran
Hooshmand, 1001 Nights wasn't notable solely as a novelty (you only need
one hand to count the local groups who play Middle Eastern-flavored world
music), but rather because this group did a first-class job interpreting
standards of the style (Ashkabad) and penning original tunes ("Gypsy Nights").
Like well-played Celtic songs, these tunes are deeply mournful and moving,
yet simultaneously uplifting and toe-tapping; the only electricity on
stage came from the band's playing, not their amplifiers. 1001 Nights
deftly demonstrated why hewn wood, stretched hide, and taunt strings are
more than enough to entertain and inspire.
The group's fine performance was undoubtedly inspired by an engaged and enthused crowd, who shouted out requests, clapped along, and sang an occasional chorus. In fact, the band's two sets felt more like an open rehearsal than a gig. The downside of this spontaneity was some uncertainty when it came time to choose the next song to play, but the great cultural and physical distance the band traveled as they navigated from Lebanese standards to Persian love songs to Sufi devotional songs to Arabic pop tunes probably had a lot to do with this. While 1001 Nights are well-versed in the history of Middle Eastern music, they also add their imaginative stamp, such as using North Indian tabla drums in an Afghani song. This is how all creative forms develop and improve: by artists who are proficient in tradition and willing to experiment -- not by media-darling posers eager to capitalize on the next musical packaging trend.
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