As a young girl living in Brooklyn, N.Y., Galeet Dardashti was fascinated by stories of her grandfather, a great Jewish cantor in Tehran whose voice drew Muslims to his synagogue. Her CD The Naming reclaims the endangered Persian-Jewish heritage in a contemporary setting. The music is a dramatic mix of the hammered dulcimers and zithers of the Near East with bass guitar, cello and electronics. The marriage of centuries is fully and passionately consummated, providing an enveloping sonic venue for Dardashti’s powerful voice and Talmudic wisdom.
