Ruminations on Rumi and nations

by Rupert Bottenberg - Montreal Mirror - Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Thursday, 15 Jun 2006

Poetry in motions: Doors drummer John Densmore and Iranian artist Reza Derakshani break on through to the other side.

“Purple is actually kind of a spiritual colour, you know, if you want to get cosmic,” says former Doors drummer John Densmore, on the horn from the City of Angels. “It’s a healing colour. Whereas red is agitation and blue is peaceful, purple is definitely spiritual, bringing opposites together.”

We’re discussing the somewhat imaginary divide between the proverbial red and blue states in his country, but that idea, of an opposition to which there is less than meets the eye, applies at least as strongly to the political and cultural gap between Iran and the West. The reason for this line of inquiry is Densmore’s concert with his Iranian friend and collaborator Reza Derakshani, painter, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

“I don’t know if it’s opposites, but I am going to go on stage and say, ‘I was born in Los Angeles and still live there, Reza was born in Tehran and still lives there, and up until a few days ago, it was U.S. government policy that Iranians and Americans don’t speak. Well, we’re going to have a musical conversation right now.’”

Timing is everything
Or rather, they’re going to resume and embellish an ongoing conversation that began the better part of a decade ago, one of tremendous importance to both. “This has probably been the greatest experience of my musical life,” says Derakshani in a separate interview. “Obviously, John’s place in the history of American music is well known. I met him at a conference on poetry and music in Wisconsin, and we immediately created this artistic, musical bond. That was a time when I was going through a transformation in my own music, from very traditional classical into collaborations with non-Persians, and getting involved with Western music. I guess I was very lucky. It was the perfect moment to meet him.

“He came to New York, to my apartment. He grabbed my hand drum, the Persian daf, and he played it in a strange way, but it was amazing. Whatever happened there was the start of our collaboration.”

What followed was Derakshani visiting Densmore in California, and the remarkably fast and spontaneous creation of the album Ray of the Wine, with Derakshani on vocals and various Persian instruments, Densmore drumming and producing, and his band Tribaljazz backing the duo up.

Derakshani’s reaching out past the confines of Persian classicism hasn’t been without its repercussions back home. “I’ve been quite controversial, I would say, in Tehran. But obviously, the younger generation are very much for it—they appreciate that, they’re positive.”

Taking it to the bridge
At the core of Ray of the Wine is the spirit of 13th-century poet Jelaluddin Rumi, the foremost figure of Sufism, that marvelous, mystical strain of Islam that stands in such stark contrast (dare I say opposition?) to the repressed and repressive variants to which Bin Laden and his intolerant ilk subscribe. Whereas Wahhabi and Salafi Muslims (and the fundamentalist Shi’a types in Iran) are too frequently infected with a hostility towards beauty, diversity and sensuality, Sufis embrace these things with open hearts, seeing them as Allah’s gifts.

“This has been the role of Sufism,” says Derakshani. “From the beginning there were some hardliners who created problems, but Sufism became a bridge, kind of, between the religion itself and the other group, the intellectuals, who looked at it differently, in terms of finding the best of each side and creating a different way of thinking. That’s very much involved in Persian music, because it’s always connected to good poetry.”

Of course, in reaching across to the Western sounds, Ray of the Wine ran the risk of diluting Rumi’s essence. “It’s a bit unusual for Persian music, as usually the instruments are very acoustic, very quiet. But then here we have the big sound of John Densmore, who played with Jim Morrison. But what I always tried to keep, and I think John understood that—because he is also very spiritual—was that aspect of the music. Even if the form is different, we tried to keep that soul, that spirituality in the music.”

Here’s a fact guaranteed to rankle the red-state absolutists, and their Muslim equivalents too: Rumi is widely regarded as the most popular poet in America—“but people don’t connect that with the Axis of Evil,” sighs Densmore. “I hope this little tour will put more of a face on the Iranian people. They’re not all terrorists! The culture’s so rich. Actually, I found some blogs from Tehran—they’re so touching. I’m going to read a couple in between songs, to really personalize the whole thing.”