Reels

My early blip yesterday meant that I was unable to blip from the Barbican later in the day where I was at a concert of Persian radif. How to describe it? Wonderfully mesmeric improvisation on the poems of Rumi played on a four-stringed Persian fiddle by acclaimed Kayhan Kalhor. He should have been accompanied by a Turkish long neck lute player but there were visa problems (sadly this happens so very often to internationally renowned musicians these days, preventing them from entering the country) but instead we had some great rhythmical percussion from Madjid Khaladj. The melodies and rhythms were interwoven and developed throughout the hour and a half session and ended up in music that was reminiscent of a Scottish reel, quite extraordinary and amazingly skillful.

On the subject of reels, visiting a friend this evening, I commented that the reels she had on display would be excellent blip material, if she didn't mind... They belonged to her recently deceased father, who was a great collector, and this was one of his many collections which she couldn't resist... I can see why... they might also come in useful...