The People

The People is the first album from MA Rouf, the latest band of Iranian-Finnish composer and musician Marouf Majidi. Majidi grew up in Iran surrounded by music, encountering and practicing Persian classical and Turkish folk music before moving to Finland to study global music. The People sees the Middle Eastern melodies and instrumentation of Majidi's roots set in a modern jazz idiom, creating this potent work of world/jazz fusion where Eastern calls receive a Western response.

With clarinets and sax regularly taking the limelight, Majidi's tanbur or tar often lurks further back, providing a dark, mystical tone. Similarly, when Majidi's vocals enter in songs such as ‘Blues for Soran’, they are low, restrained and husky. Indeed, with often understated melodies, sparse daf percussion and only occasionally juxtaposing free-jazz bursts, the album is a far more measured affair than many a jazz-fusion project. Polished production and performances provide a rich sonority and clarity for the particularly enjoyable instrumentation and arrangements on many tracks, including the album highlight, ‘Dancing Fakir’, which broods and builds with a pulsing bass clarinet under intertwining tanbur and sax melodies.