Rana Farhan: Home صفحۀ اصلی

In her Harlem studio, together with Guitarist Steven Toub, Rana Farhan produces songs that marry the lyrics of the 13th century mystic poet Rumi with American elements of Blues and Jazz. The result is a rich and delicious blend that leaves the imagination longing for more especially for young musicians in Iran who see Rana as an icon and download her songs religiously over the internet.

Rana’s virtual popularlity in Iran is what led Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi to feature her in his new film, “No One Knows About Persian Cats.” The film captures Iran’s vibrant underground music scene, and was just released in the United States.

Ghobadi says Rana is an important figure in the Iranian music scene today. “Like a needle and thread,“ Ghobadi says, "Rana stitches East and West together through her music. Her artistic experience is born of pain. She left Iran because she wasn’t able to sing.”

“Rana can be seen as a symbol of the first generation of underground music in the Islamic Republic,” says Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi who is co-writer of the film. In the 1990’s, after it was clear Rana wouldn’t be able to freely puruse her musical career, she moved to the United States.

Rana now recites Rumi in Harlem but her roots are in 1960’s Iran where she grew up listening to Odetta, Janice Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix. “There was a record store in Tehran called Beethoven and they had a great collection of Blues,” Rana says, “I’d go there with a friend of mine a couple times a month and buy records and then I started listening to the Blues.”

Once she was in New York, Rana immersed herself in the study of jazz studying the works of Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. “Once I heard Billie Holiday I knew everything that I had heard before stemmed from her,“ Rana says. "She sang with such passion that I could actually hear her heart breaking through the speakers. I was hooked. I had to try and channel some of that into my singing.”

This Persian cats' albums, “Your Wish” (Arezoo-ye-toh) and “I Return,” (Bahz Amaadam) can be found on iTunes, in a Harlem studio, and in the deepest layers of Iran’s underground music scene. Did you ever think of the Blues as a bridge between Iran and America?

by Iran Davar Ardalan — 27 April 2010