Salam Homayoon, and other members of Haft DastGah group,

I was surprised to receive the e-mail from you containing my
privately expressed comments. I don't know who posted my comments
to "Haft Dastgah" yahoo group. My apologies to all members for the
lack of sensitivity of the person who sent it to you. It sure wasn't
me.

Since my comments were shared with a group without my knowledge and
permission, I need to do a little explaining... if you are too busy
you can stop reading it now...

My comments were strong at the sender of the original message Mr.
"Faraz". After my email to only him and Mehrdad, I got a response
from both. But in all fairness Mr. Faraz's response was very kind
and warm.
As I read his response I began to realize what a gentleman,
knowledgeable and kind person he is. Then it became clear that his
intentions were totally benign and he was merely discussing one's
performance among HIS OWEN CIRCLE OF FRIENDS that know him. I don't
believe his intention was to send it to a large group of people and
not expect receiving any response!

The real mistake here is to share one' strong opinion among people
that don't know him, or post it to groups that he is not a member
of. That's why I wrote what I wrote, and I only wrote that to Mr.
Faraz and Mehrdad. So my comments and criticism were PRIVATE to them
only! But now to my dismay Mr. Naghibian has chosen the "Zeer Abee"
path and has "BCC'd" that is "Blind Carbon Copy", the whole yahoo
group...!!!!!
That is just unfair and unprofessional. I hope it was an honest
mistake on his part...

The lesson to be learned is not to forward every e-mail you receive
to everyone whose e-mail you have just because you can and it's easy
to do.
Please be considerate to the senders!!! And recipients!!!! Alike.

Finally, Camcorders may not do justice when recording an amplified
sound in an auditorium. The quality may have been degraded by
distance, reflections and echoes in the room. Could that have
contributed for him to be out of tune....?


Bijan Gofranian

P.S. I have a copy of Mr. Faraz's response, but I will let him share
it only if he chooses.





--- In Haft_Dastgah@yahoogroups.com, mehrdad naghibian
<naghibian@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Bijan,
>
> I am sorry if you did not like the fact that Faraz questioned Mr.
Nazeri's performance.
> However, you are hitting both on Faraz for expressing himself and
on our national/classical/traditional music. I don't think Faraz was
trying to ruin Mr. Nazeri's reputation. I believe that he was
disturbed, like many others, by the fact that this particular
performance of Mr. Nazeri was conspicuously very poor, out of tune,
and simply pathetic; and it was performed for mostly non-Iranian
audience. I recently played with Mr. Nazeri in a private party and he
sang relatively well. I have a lot of his older CDs and I enjoy a lot
of them. I used to go to his concerts. Recently he has started a
style that may not be interesting to some of us-which you are right;
we have an option not to listen to it or go to his concert ( what I
did ). However, when our music is brutalized by an experienced
musician like him, we have a right to talk about it and express
ourselves. Style is a preference and absolutely Mr. Nazeri's right to
choose his work and I have no doubt that he finds his
> own audience. Being out of tune and not admitting it comes from
arrogance, ignorance, and being rude.
>
> As I mentioned, it is better for people to watch the clip and
evaluate it themselves. By the way, we don't know whether or not the
film was illegally taped. It is on you-tube and anyone can access it
( Faraz has nothing to do with it ).
>
> I'll make sure not to disturb you with emails like this again.
>
> Take care,
>
> Mehrdad
>
> Bijan Ghofranian <Bijan@...> wrote:
> I am not sure what you guys are talking about... But
apparently both of you don't like his style... I am not a fan of
Nazeri nor Shajarian, nor particularly believe that the classical
monophonic Persian music is all that developed as compared with
western music. ... But I am perturbed by wisdom of distributing
this e-mail questioning the style of another artist. Well perhaps
you don't understand it just yet.... You may have to develop a taste
for it... I am not sure if it is Faraz's business to question why
people applaud for.... They applaud for what they enjoyed
dude.... !!! If you don't like it don't watch it, don't buy his CD,
and don't go to his concert. If you can do it better then go for
it. This was not criticizing him... This was typical corrupt Persian
slander... Stop it.
> ...Not to mention the illegally recorded video...
>
> Bijan Gofranian
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> From: mehrdad naghibian [mailto:naghibian@...]
> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 9:49 AM
> To: faraz_santour@...
> Subject: What a Performance!!!!
>
>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> Please read Faraz's comments below and watch the clip posted on
youtube. The rest is very self-explanatory.
>
> Dear Faraz,
>
> I received your comments through Safheh Irani yahoo-group. I
don't really know what to say. I think you said it all. Let's just
say nothing and pass it around so people can find out for themselves.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Mehrdad
>
> Posted by: "Faraz Minooei" faraz_santour@ yahoo.com
> Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:09 pm (PST) Salam,
>
> I saw this video on you tube and I had to share it with all of you.
> I can not stop myself to criticize this performance,
>
> 1. Why does he do this?
> 2. Does he know what he is doing?
> 3. Does he know he is out of tune? What is the philosophy behind the
> rhythm.
> 4. He can not sing the notes till finding them on the setar.
> 5. What is the structure of whatever he is doing?
> 6. What kind of style does he play on setar?
> 7. Where did he get the poem from?
> 8. What does he know about the rest of the poem?
> 9. Is he the best vocalist after Shajarian? then should I say
goodbye
> to the Avaz of Iran?
> 10. Is this the example of Iranian music?
> 11. How do Westerners look at our music based on this performance?
> 12. What do people applaud for?
> 13. Do people realize there is something wrong?
> 14. Who is responsible to talk about this issue?
> 15. Can anyone talk to him about this issue?
> 17. Should I ask more questions?
>
> Oh I forgot that he is the Ostad and I should be polite and not
> criticize him!!!!
>
> I have practice from Radif Navazi, to Jazz, twentieth Century music
> and Philippine's music and more and I know we are free to do
whatever
> we want to do, but please don't destroy the law of nature, and be in
> tune.
>
> See the performance here!
>
> http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=k-wP8PYX- 8M
>