Apr
27
w/ Haleh Liza Gafori, Shahzad Ismaily & Daniel Fresco + Miriam Elhajli
Sat April 27th, 2024
7:30PM
Main Space
Minimum Age: 18+
Doors Open: 6:30PM
Show Time: 7:30PM
Event Ticket: $25
Day of Show: $30
World
In GOLD RUMI, named after the book of the same title, vocalist, composer, and poet Haleh Liza Gafori weaves her acclaimed translations of Rumi’s poetry with original text and musical compositions sung in Persian and English. A transcendent and uplifting musical and poetic conversation in which the words of the beloved sage dialogue with our times.
After three sold out shows in NYC, she looks forward to sharing the work at Le Poisson Rouge. She’ll be joined by GRAMMY-nominated multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Daniel Fresco.
“Ecstatic and piercing…[Haleh Liza Gafori] has lifted a veil, bringing Rumi closer into the quick of our present. Each piece is a divine invitation. Free your mind. Drown in love.” – V (formerly Eve Ensler)
“GOLD is everything Rumi was himself—sacred, profane, laugh out loud funny, deeply earnest, demotic, and yes, Persian. There’s a rich fluency here not just in idiom but in gesture, in spirit.”
– Kaveh Akbar, poetry editor at The Nation
“Gafori’s work is insistent, lyrical, filled with music and textured, as it extols and marvels at our natural world and our place therein…in the midst of terror, fear, and indifference, she extends towards us beauty and hope.” – author Nathan McClain
“Shahzad Ismaily is one of music’s most coveted collaborators.” – The New York Times
Ticketing Policy
This show includes both Standing and Seated tickets. By purchasing a Seated ticket you agree to also purchase a minimum of two food and/or beverage items per person.
Table seating is first come, first seated. Please arrive early for the best choice of available seats. Seating begins when doors open. Tables are communal so you may be seated with other patrons.
Proof of vax is NOT required for this event
Haleh Liza Gafori
Haleh Liza Gafori is a vocalist, composer, poet, and translator born in NYC of Iranian descent. She first heard Molana Rumi’s poems as a child and over the last two decades has forged a deep connection with the work through singing the lyrics in Persian as well as translating the poems into English. In 2022, her book of translations entitled GOLD was published by New York Review Books. With a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, she has developed a performance piece also titled GOLD, weaving music and poems, sung and recited in both Persian and English. In April 2024, she will return from a 6 week residency at MacDowell where she is completing the second volume of translations as well as further developing the performance piece. Gafori has performed and offered workshops and lectures across the country, at venues and institutions such as Stanford University, Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, Bradford Literary Fest, and The New York Public Library.
Shahzad Ismaily
Shahzad Ismaily was born in the States to Pakistani parents who emigrated here just before his birth. He grew in a bicultural household, always following a multitude of paths and perusals. He is mostly self-taught as a musician, composer, recording engineer, and producer. He primarily plays electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers, and all manner of sound-makers procured in life’s travels. He has recorded and performed with a diverse crew of artMakers, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Beth Orton, Colin Stetson, Ben Frost, Bonnie Prince Billy, Damien Rice, Jolie Holland, JFDR, Secret Chiefs 3, Sam Amidon, further and further. He has been an integral member of festival/residency/collective experiences such as the People Festival (the brainchild of Bon Iver, The National, and the Michelberger), the Eau Claires festival, the Moers Festival. He has done work for dance and theater pieces, such as the film Frozen River (Oscar-nominated and Sundance award-winning), Inkboat (a butoh crew from California/Switzerland), and visual artist Laleh Khorramian. This year alone, he’ll teach in residence at BANFF, the Oklahoma Center for Contemporary Arts, the Monheim Triennale, and very happily, the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Currently based in Brooklyn and working out of the recording studio collective he founded and created, Figure 8 Recording, he has studied music extensively in Pakistan, India, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Indonesia, Morocco, and Iceland.
Daniel Fresco
Daniel Fresco is a NYC based, professional drummer and percussionist. With renowned trumpeter Ray Vega, he played congas/timbales for the University of Vermont Latin Jazz ensemble, has shared the stage with Snarky Puppy and The Roots at UVM Springfest, and tours and records with a variety of artists including, Clover and RCA Artist Dhruv.
Miriam Elhajli
Songwriter Miriam Elhajli has carved out a distinctive sound that draws equally on jazz, 70s South American nuevo cancion and levantine sounds, reflecting her Venezuelan-Moroccan heritage. She cuts loose with an expressive, constantly mutable voice, likes fingerpicking her acoustic guitar in odd tunings and writes intriguing, thoughtfully imagistic lyrics. – New York Music Daily
“Miriam Elhajli has created something really outstanding, unique, and heartfelt” -David Amram
“Eclectic, with a soaring voice” – New York Music Daily
“A haunting voice” – The New York Times
Miriam Elhajli is a folk singer, composer-improviser, and musicologist whose work is influenced by the rich musical traditions of her Venezuelan, Moroccan and North American heritage.
Elhajli currently lives in New York City where she performs and works as a researcher at The Association for Cultural Equity founded by Alan Lomax. Elhajli’s debut LP “Observations” was released this spring on her independent label Numina Records. Elhajli’s sophomore album “The Uncertainty of Signs” was released 2/22/22.