Vas and why I love their music a lot
Vas music has been called "alternative world." They have four CDs out under the Vas duo lineup: Azam Ali and Greg Ellis. Both have distinguished themselves in other fields of music besides Vas: Azam in medieval Christian and postmodern Islamic music, Greg in the percussion universe that includes Planet Drum and the many Planet Drum outgrowths.
Greg plays every sort of drum and percussion imaginable. Azam plays the Iranian hammered dulcimer and sings in a nonlanguage made up of syllables that don't necessarily mean anything, but sound good together; these syllables are subtly interwoven with, and to some extent echoing and playing with, many actual words from real languages, including Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, etc. Her lyrical inventions are almost like the American art of scat singing, but since Vas's compositions are mostly inspired by Middle Eastern and Hindustani music, I think she derives her vocals from the North Indian art of tarana singing.
However they've put it together, their music weaves a powerful, dreamy mystical spell. They groove with the spirits. Their music strongly appeals to me as a linguist focused on the Middle East and South Asia, as a percussionist, and as a Witch.
Also, I just have to say Azam Ali is one of the hottest, sexiest women in music, with wavy jet-black hair down to her buttocks and eyes like the universe.
Greg plays every sort of drum and percussion imaginable. Azam plays the Iranian hammered dulcimer and sings in a nonlanguage made up of syllables that don't necessarily mean anything, but sound good together; these syllables are subtly interwoven with, and to some extent echoing and playing with, many actual words from real languages, including Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, etc. Her lyrical inventions are almost like the American art of scat singing, but since Vas's compositions are mostly inspired by Middle Eastern and Hindustani music, I think she derives her vocals from the North Indian art of tarana singing.
However they've put it together, their music weaves a powerful, dreamy mystical spell. They groove with the spirits. Their music strongly appeals to me as a linguist focused on the Middle East and South Asia, as a percussionist, and as a Witch.
Also, I just have to say Azam Ali is one of the hottest, sexiest women in music, with wavy jet-black hair down to her buttocks and eyes like the universe.