Featuring the percussive, plucked string melodies of the Afghan rubab, rolling hand-percussion rhythms and soulfully mellifluous vocals, notably from the legendary Radio Kabul singer Ustad Farida Mahwash, this recording also augments the core, five-piece ensemble with well-chosen guests. Its nine vocal and three instrumental tracks cover the ensemble’s full range of folkloric and classical music. Has just finished the most ambitious modern recording of Afghan music available today, Love Songs for Humanity (World Harmony Productions). That allure, and the confluence of these communities, goes to the heart of the group’s mission: to give Americans a vision their country that is-to borrow a Berkeley phrase-based on love, not war.
The Afghans witness a summit of star power rarely seen at their intra-community concerts, while the newcomers experience an irresistible seduction by the passion and virtuosity of Afghan music. The rest of the house consists mostly of uninitiated, culturally curious listeners.
No surprise then that a large number of Bay Area Afghans have made their way through the unfamiliar maze of the Berkeley campus to attend the concert. The principals in this group, legendary vocalist Ustad Farida Mahwash and Homayoun Sakhi, the young master of the double-chambered rubâb lute, enjoy iconic status among Afghans. Tucked away in that tight immigrant enclave are some of the greatest exponents of Afghanistan’s war-shattered art-music tradition. Ince 1980, the San Francisco Bay Area has become home to the largest community of Afghan expatriates in the United States-some 120,000-most of them living in the East Bay community of Fremont. Performing in Berkeley on March 2, Voices of Afghanistan is, from left to right, Abbos Kossimov, Pervez Sakhi, Homayoun Sakhi, Ustad Farida Mahwash, Khalil Ragheb and Ezmarai Aref.
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