Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment) – Amidst war and genocide in Ukraine and in Gaza, a new spring came along. For millions of Persian-speaking people, March 19 marked the beginning of Nowruz or new day this year. A holiday with Zoroastrian roots, Nowruz is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of India and the Arab world more. It lasts for 13 days and ends with a picnic. It is indeed a beautiful celebration.
At the beginning of the Iranian revolution, the new regime in Tehran tried in vain to dissuade Iranians from celebrating this ancient feast, exhorting them to concentrate more on Islamic feasts.
It was no use. People fiercely resisted such policies and ended up celebrating Nowruz even more enthusiastically.
A day after this year’s Nowruz, on March 20th, a beloved artist/singer passed away from cancer in Maryland. He was seventy-eight years old. His name was Faramarz Aslani. We, the generation from before the Iranian revolution, grew up with his music, a mix of Spanish guitar and Persian melancholic lyrics.
Aslani, like so many singers who did not fit the new regime’s definition of culture, left Iran for England and eventually emigrated to the U.S. He continued to sing. His voice was deep, warm, and passionate, sometimes sad.
At the beginning of the Revolution, like so many artists and intellectuals, he was for change, not knowing what the future had in store. He sang a song depicting the struggle against the former regime in favor of the people’s movement. But soon, like so many he became disillusioned. His songs were forbidden and called taghouti, a Quranic term describing anything tyrannical and commonly used for the shah’s regime.
Yet, the youth in Iran still enjoyed his music and would listen clandestinely.
Over the years, things changed. I vividly remember that on one of my last trips to Iran, a large gathering of men and women and youngsters was held on the grounds of the Borj Milad in Tehran.
Faramarz Alsani’s music filled the air.
Aslani held concerts with other famous singers in cities with a high concentration of Iranian expatriates such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He was revered not just as a musician but as a fine human being who truly cared about his country and his people.
“Faramarz Aslani Feat. Dariush: Age Ye Rooz | داریوش و فرامرز اصلانی: اگه یه روز | Official Video”
He started a tour in the U.S. in 1992 at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. received by an enthusiastic crowd, he said, “These songs are from all the sweet and bitter memories of my life.”
A year later, he finished an album called Hafez, A Memorandum, which consisted of eight poems by Hafez, Iran’s most famous mystical poet.
In 2010, he released another album titled, The Third line (Khatte Sevvom).
Yet, his song, Age Ye Rooz, (if you go on a trip one day), became the signature song of nostalgia for many Iranians, evoking the past, a different era.
Like so many before him, Faramarz Aslani died in exile, far away from his homeland, where he had grown up and had learned to love and compose music.
He became a journalist in London, but it was always his music and his songs that remained.
He is gone now leaving behind a legacy. The many tributes on social media are filled with his music, remembering a legend that died a day after Nowruz.
Adieu Mr. Aslani….
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