Zar, also known as The Shanbehzadeh Ensemble (Persian: گروه شنبه زاده) is an Iranian folk-jazz band, formed in Bushehr, Iran in 1990. The band offers a rare perspective on the traditional music and dance of the Persian Gulf, more specifically that of the southern Iranian coast. The principal instruments of the ensemble are the neyanbān (bagpipe), ney-jofti (flute), dammām (drum), zarbetempo (percussion), traditional flute, senj (cymbal) and boogh (a goat's horn). The ensemble has performed in front of audiences in Iran, Europe and North America.
The band was founded by internationally acclaimed Iranian musician and dancer, Saeed Shanbezadeh in 1990. Saied, who traces his ancestry to Zanzibar in East Africa, was born in Bushehr, Iran, where he started playing music at the age of 7 with the old masters of the music of the region. He began with percussions, singing, and traditional dance. At 20 he founded the group of Shanbehzadeh Ensemble and won the 1st prize at the Fajr Music Festival in Tehran in 1990. In 1996 he was invited by the University of Toronto to teach a half-a-year course. In 2007 he was invited again by La Cité de La Musique of Paris to teach dance, singing and music. In 1998 he was named the professor and director of the House of Culture, Music and Dance of the Isle of Kish in Iran. That same year he portrayed himself in Dialogue with the Wind by Bahram Beyzaei.
Saeed Shanbehzadeh left Iran in 2002 and now lives in Paris.
(2) Zar is a melodic hard rock/power metal band from Germany (Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg) . Their first release came out in 1990 titled "Live your life forever", and sounded similar to Dio, Europe and TNT. The band has started as a hard rock band, but have changed their direction for the second album towards melodic heavy/power metal, which was comparable to Axxis stylewise. John Lawton did not want to sing on the new, harder material, and so he was replaced by Thommy Bloch. John later returned to sing lead vocals as a guest on one song on the ``From Welcome... To Goodbye`` album. The band is active as of 2009. Discography:
Live Your Life Forever Full-length, 1990
Carry On Single, 1991
Sorted Out Full-length, 1991
From Welcome... To Goodbye Full-length, 1993
The Holy Rhythm of Nature Full-length, 1995
Hard to the Beat Full-length, 2003
Current Lineup:
André Sauber - Vocals
Tommy Clauss - Guitar (Rebel)
Lars Nippa - Drums (Chryztyne)
(3) The Danish folk band ZAR has released two CDs so far. Both CDs have been awarded a Danish Music Award. The first album "Strengeleg" was awarded for best debut-recording of the year 2002, and in 2004 Sine Lauritsen was awarded Best Vocalist for the album Tusind Tanker.
ZAR plays traditional songs and tunes that have survived through several generations, and in the hands of ZAR the music starts living again. ZAR does not only find it's inspiration from the international folk-scene, ZAR is also exploring other music-styles such as jazz and pop-music.
"We want to give people a chance to hear that Danish folk-music can cause some fantastic experiences, as long as you keep an open mind." These are the words of vocalist Sine Lauritsen, who is the front figure on the stage with her charismatic voice.
Besides Sine the band consists of four young musicians all educated from the Danish music academies. The line-up is fiddles, guitar and double-bass, which sometimes makes it hard to sit still during a concert. ZAR has toured festivals and venues all over Denmark and has furthermore played at festivals in Scotland, Canada, USA, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia.
Sine Lauritsen: Vocal
Christopher Davis Maack: Fiddle
Andreas Tophøj Rasmussen: Fiddle
Rasmus Zeeberg: Guitar
Steffan S. Sørensen: Double bass, fiddle.
(4) Keyboardist Jo Thirion (Etron Fou Leloublan) teams up with drummer Katie O'Looney (Carbon) for a series of composed duets.They put on an energetic, well-paced performance with some genuine new ideas. They released "Reservoir" from Stupeur&Trompette! records in 1995 which produced by Elliott Sharp.
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