Fast Horse Recordings releases
Friendship, a new CD by Iraqi ud player Rahim Alhaj backed by his
Sadaka String Quartet.
In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Rahim AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to
his political activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in
Jordan and Syria.
He moved to the US in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ever since.
Rahim has performed all over the world, on tour with Munir Bashir, his teacher, as well as solo and with his string quartet project, including numerous concerts in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, and France and hundreds of concerts in the United States.
Rahim’s music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams with contemporary styling and influence. His compositions are about the experience of exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country.
Buy Friendship
World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060913184855334