Perplexity (Heirani)

Exhibit A, my dinner tonight.

My sons and their friends went to San Francisco to celebrate their Saturday night. Instead of worrying about them as I am inclined to do, I decided to get busy doing my own things! I had a beautiful simple dinner, Exhibit A, and got busy working on a large project I have been trying to finish. So, I don't know what is happening to me here! For some reason I am in my story-telling mood again, remembering so many memories and wanting to share them! You poor things, will have to put up with me. So, here's the story I remembered today.

I said last night that Kaykhosrow Pournazeri's Shams Ensemble (Tanboor Navazan-e Shams) is one of my favorite music groups in Iran. I remember seeing them for the first time in the Bay Area in 1991/1992, when they were touring with Shahram Nazeri. It was an awesome concert, and I remember how much I enjoyed the performance. The local Iranian television station aired several of the songs from the concert and I videotaped them, listening to them frequently. We moved to Iran in 1992, and since my arrival, I was looking for that album. I used to go into music shops and ask for “Shahram Nazeri's new album with Kaykhosrow Pournazeri,” and they kept giving me Motreb-e-Mahtab-roo, which I also loved and owned, but which wasn't what I was looking for. This was most puzzling to me, but I wouldn’t give up, either. I would watch the videotapes of the songs at home and go looking for that album once every few months.

In 1998, one day I was shopping at the nearby Super Jordan which happened to have a music section. I knew the young chaps who worked there, and we would have “musical chats” often. On this day, I asked Mehdi, the guy behind the counter, whether he could help me. I said: “Agha Mehdi, Shahram Nazeri and Tanbournavazan-e-Shams did an album together a few years ago. One of their songs goes something like this…” and I started whispering the song: “dar talabe zohreh rokhe mahroo…” for him. He listened and after a few minutes he said: “I think I have it!” I stopped whispering and just as I started asking him excitedly to show me the album, I heard some people behind me clapping and complementing me on my singing! Can you believe it?! I had not been whispering, I guess! It was rather humiliating, but the best part of the day was that Mehdi brought out the album “Heirani” (Perplexity) to me and I quickly paid for it and left to listen to it at home, but also to escape the people who most likely thought I was crazy! As to what had happened to the album for all those years, I heard that because the Shams Ensemble had women singing rather prominently in the background of that album, it couldn’t pass Ministry of Guidance’s requirements for publication. With the more relaxed conditions of post-Khatami era, it became possible to release that album. So, I finally got my album, but not before I did an involuntary concert in tribute for it! I leave you with another Shams Ensemble clip tonight. It's awesome. Have a good evening you all.