Rahim AlHaj: One Iraqi Whose Sounds and Stories Can Change Lives

There’s really no good reason why Rahim AlHaj’s life shouldn’t become a Steven Spielberg movie. The musician, who visits Louisville this month, has carried his oud all over the world, from Baghdad to the western edge of the United States, with stops in between as a political prisoner, Grammy winner and educator.

Now a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, AlHaj’s journey continues with a visit to the Clifton Center for “Into the Garden: A Festival of Iraqi Culture,” taking place from October 6 – 10. Kentucky Refugee Ministries and the Louisville Free Public Library’s Iroquois branch join the Clifton Center in presenting several opportunities throughout the week for learning, playing and otherwise sharing through the joy of music, art, food and everything else Iraqis and Americans have in common.

“He is an inspiration,” American guitar innovator Bill Frisell said of AlHaj. The two collaborated on the 2010 album Little Earth, which also featured AlHaj performing alongside R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, American violinist Eyvind Kang, avant-garde accordionist Guy Klucevsek and Malian griot Yacouba Sissoko. But it took AlHaj, currently 46 years old, a very long time to get to that highlight.

33 years earlier and 7,000 miles away, young Rahim discovered the short-neck, lute-like oud and quickly realized his skill with it. By 14, he was headlining concerts. He practiced under the master Munir Bashir, taking his studies all the way to college at the Baghdad Conservatory of Fine Arts. However, the politically progressive and outspoken AlHaj made enemies by refusing to join Saddam Hussein’s ruling party, and further provoked the dictator by performing songs like “Why?” A total of two years of imprisonment, including consistent assaults by his jailors, followed over the next few years. After his release, AlHaj returned to his university.

He studied Arabic literature, mainly because his father – who had never been truly supportive of his music – had put pressure on him. As the Gulf War began, AlHaj decided the time had come to flee all of his oppressors and try to find freedom and peace, for himself and his music. His one true supporter, his beloved mother, sold everything to help him escape. He wouldn’t see her again until 2004.

He moved through Jordan and Syria first, and told NPR, “When I crossed the border between Iraq and Jordan, they took my instrument from me. And this is the saddest moment in my entire life…. I had a choice between leave my instrument or have life. I had to leave. And so I left Iraq and left my instrument.” AlHaj found love in Syria, and they wound up together in New Mexico at the turn of the century through a refugee resettlement program.

Having to learn English while looking for work, AlHaj was directed to a job – at a McDonald’s. That short-lived adventure was followed by an almost equally disastrous stint as a night watchman (where he was fired for playing his music while at work).

He was able to release his first album in 2002, and has since released seven more. Whether solo, in a trio or a symphony, AlHaj demands attention without having to resort to loudness or gimmicks. His playing is focused and prayer-like, though the man is more overtly joyful and exuberant in everyday life. He writes about freedom, home, loss, war and of course, love. He combines poetry and music in all of his compositions, one way or another.

And then there is also his politics. Asked if he continues to be an active voter, as a citizen since 2008, AlHaj replies, “Of course! I’ve spent most of my life fighting hard for justice. I still do that. It is our duty to make life better against the politicians who control everything and destroy our lives! I am a big fan of change, and a big fan of making peace and compassion for all.”

“I call my music ‘The Sound of Resistance,’” he continues. “I always take the story of children, women, the tragedies of the world, and turn it and make it music from it – to give women and children a voice, for the voiceless people … I believe that everybody has the ability to make change, to make a difference.”

Rahim AlHaj
Friday, Oct. 10
Clifton Center
2117 Payne St.
cliftoncenter.org
$10; 8 p.m.

c. 2014 Clifton Center

Teddy talks: New orchestra conductor is on a mission to bring music to the people

photo by Sam English

The front door is open at Teddy Abrams’ new NuLu home as another reporter walks up, ready to take a turn in the month-long charm offensive that is the Louisville Orchestra’s plan to win back the younger audience thought lost to them. At 27, Abrams has proven himself to be an intelligent, hard-working and driven conductor, composer and musician.

His offstage wardrobe includes neat, stylish jeans and sneakers, and he gets around on a bicycle. But this is not Portlandia; Abrams has been studying and working for more than half of his life, and his journey has taken him from San Francisco to Philadelphia, Budapest, Miami, Detroit and Louisville.

In addition to Whitney Hall, the orchestra recently performed a free Sunday concert at Iroquois Amphitheater, and Abrams has appeared everywhere from the Village Anchor and Decca to Churchill Downs and YPAS. At the latter, he spent 90 minutes rehearsing a three-minute section of one piece in minute detail, while also offering life lessons and making jokes to put the students at ease.

If he sounds like a politician running for office, that’s not far off. Abrams stresses the value of connecting person-to-person with audience members. He responds to every letter, email and tweet, and stays after events to shake hands.

The simplest things, like talking on stage before each piece, sharing its story or trying to help the audience connect to it emotionally, goes a long way, he says. “I always say, ‘Museums really hit on something,’ because there was a time when they didn’t have explanations for paintings. Somebody came up with that idea. It changes your entire way of looking at it.”


Abrams with YPAS students
photo by Frankie Steele

Abrams’ job includes trying things that are new or unexpected. Pianos in the front room of his house are connected to speakers, so if he’s practicing, passers-by will be able to hear the music outside on East Main Street. He just needs to remember to turn off the speakers when he’s done — like he has to remember to turn off the microphone pack on his back when he takes a bathroom break while filming for the new web series, Music Makes a City Now, chronicling his adventures at work, at home and around town.

“We have this opportunity at the start of the season — eyes are on the orchestra and on Louisville. We need to capitalize on that,” he says. Last year, Abrams sat in several times during a turnaround year that found the orchestra in the black once again, with some thanks going to film composer John Williams for spending a night at Whitney Hall. Indeed, Williams’ theme from E.T. was on the set list again last Sunday. It was a selection that, predictably, delighted both children and their parents.

The question Abrams gets most frequently is, of course, “How do you get young people to come back to the orchestra?”

“As if there’s a secret. There’s no secret.” This impasse leaves Abrams and the rest of the organization determined to take to the streets, online, to schools like YPAS and U of L, and even to young bands, whether they come from rock, jazz, bluegrass or other genres.

Abrams started improvising on piano at age 3, and his love for music kicked in when he joined the school band on clarinet at 8. His parents took him to the San Francisco Symphony once in the late ’90s, and he knew that night what he wanted to do with his life. Abrams wrote a passionate letter to conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and by 11 was his student.

Abrams’ education included exposure to the great old Louisville Orchestra albums that helped make its name worldwide (composer John Adams was among many who sent Abrams a note congratulating him, saying, “This is a wonderful orchestra”).

“That’s a big deal. The brand is very important. And that’s something most orchestras of this size don’t have,” Abrams says. “We can’t just repeat what they did 40 years ago. The same ideas, same inspiration (are still needed) — but in a contemporary setting.”

Saturday’s performances include an orKIDStra performance of “Cirque de la Symphonie” at 11 a.m. and an all-ages performance at 8 p.m., both in Whitney Hall. Tickets are available at louisvilleorchestra.org.

c. 2014 Insider Louisville

Las Cafeteras’ smart party fuses tradition and 21st Century street sounds

Every 15 years or so, a rowdy bunch of Chicano musicians rises up on the east side of Los Angeles with a game-changing sound, a must-see live show and a political message embedded inside everything they do. In the early ‘80s, it was Los Lobos. In the late ‘90s, Ozomatli took the crown. Now, it’s Las Cafeteras’ turn.

“Even in L.A., where we’re from, man, our music is so different,” says Hector Flores, who sings, plays the guitar-like jarana and provides zapateado percussion. “So I can only imagine how people are going to take it once we hit these different markets,” he laughs. “Our take on it: we remix roots music, we do hip-hop and cumbia and ska, we do this mélange, man, this great buffet of sounds. It’s stuff you heard before you were born mixed in with melodies that you hear today.”

Their current tour – their longest to date, 31 shows in 13 states in 51 days – is taking the seven-piece band across the middle of the U.S., moving beyond the biggest cities into the heartland, south and northeast, expanding their worldview as they also take time out to teach others. In addition to their Clifton Center concert on Wednesday, September 24th at 7:30 p.m., the septet – which includes several community organizers – will also lead a gathering at Farnsley Middle School at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening, with an in-school performance happening earlier at Field Elementary School.

“Many of us grew up doing community and social justice work,” Flores says. “Youth development, anti-racism work … and so the music became a way for us to really talk about different cultures, different communities and peoples in a really empowering way.”

Formed in 2005, Las Cafeteras’ name was inspired by the Eastside Café, a community space where they first learned about the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico and the Son Jarocho music from Veracruz that fuels their sound today (they use the feminine “Cafeteras” to honor the struggles women have faced). But while such a venerable style – best known in America as the backbeat behind “La Bamba” – is where they begin, they update it to the current day with a fusion of acoustic and electric instruments, rapping and poetry, and percussion instruments like … well, their own feet. In addition to string instruments like a donkey jawbone, Las Cafeteras also utilizes the tap dance-like zapateado tradition to add percussion to their mix of Mexican, Spanish, African, Arabic, indigenous and American music.

Speaking of “La Bamba,” their 21st century update of that internationally beloved tune has helped them build a bridge to people otherwise unfamiliar with their cultural roots. “Everybody in the world knows ‘La Bamba,’ Flores says, noting friends’ encounters with the song as far away as Vietnam. “It’s such a universal song … but people don’t know it’s a 400-year-old Afro-Mexican song.”

He says Las Cafeteras are storytellers, and part of their message is that it’s important for all people to share their unique stories. It’s the best way for a melting pot nation to overcome their fears, work together and, sounding like a more swingin’ version of Howard Zinn, Flores says we need to “create a new history of the United States… one that’s much more inclusive.”

Their first full-length studio album, It’s Time, was released in 2012. “While the studio album is a great representation, this is definitely a band you have to experience live… and if you have a jarana or jawbone lying around, bring it,” wrote Jose Galvan of Los Angeles’ trendsetting public radio station KCRW.

“Our album is a history book,” says Flores. “Hopefully, 50 years from now people will listen to it and be, like, ‘This is what L.A. sounded like 50 years ago.’”

The band is working on their second album and hopes to see its release in 2015. “I think it’s going to take us to the next level,” Flores says. “The new sounds, I think, will be moving more from traditional to more who we are as L.A. immigrant kids. We’re creating this new immigrant sound in the United States – it wouldn’t happen anywhere else but here.”

Las Cafeteras
Wednesday, September 24
Clifton Center
2117 Payne St.
cliftoncenter.org
$10; 7:30 p.m.

c. 2014 Clifton Center

Artist Scott Scarboro and family transform old junk into new, beautiful and fun forms

Despite seeing the world through the eyes of its outsiders, Scott Scarboro has earned quite a lofty reputation in the Louisville visual arts world. His recent Green Building Gallery exhibition, “Glitches from the Memory Bank,” has been revived and is on display at Krantz Gallery at Jefferson Community & Technical College. A new show, “Stitch Witchery,” opens at WHY Louisville Two in NuLu on Friday during the Trolley Hop. But the best part of Scarboro’s 2014 has been the debut exhibition of work by his son, Harlan Strummer Welch-Scarboro, who is 11 years old.

Like his dad, Welch-Scarboro is a multimedia artist focusing on taking old, discarded objects like toys from thrift stores, yard sales and alleys and placing them into new, unexpected contexts.

But Dad says the boy has his own ideas: “Harlan’s work is somewhat different from mine, although we both are cut from the same cloth and come from a long line of junk pickers and resourceful folk. His recent grouping of work — 50 pieces! — were more like surreal assemblage constructions … He has a good eye and keen sense of beauty.”


“Cute Combo” by Harlan Strummer Welch-Scarboro

Scarboro is continuing his family’s tradition of teaching their children to make things by hand. He watched his mother and grandmother sew, and it spoke to him. “Some boys learn about the facts of life over their first beer on a fishing trip with their dad. I learned while sitting beside my mom at the Singer machine,” he says. “We had many conversations there. Something about that mechanical rhythm that would force me to tell the truth … I am at ease and comfortable at the machine.”

His WHY Louisville show, one he calls “my continuing exploration of color, materials and the process of sewing,” salutes his mother’s practice of attaching patches to the knees of his jeans. Scarboro’s professional applications began with an early ’90s job constructing costumes and clown props for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a good place for a young man who would go on to hang with the oddballs at Georgia’s Finster Fest and later found Louisville’s outsider Good Folk Fest.

But he has also found success in the corporate world. Pieces have been sold to Yum!, Maker’s Mark and Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum, and shown in Chicago, San Francisco and at Art Basel Miami. Scarboro says the world has changed somewhat and his way has become a bit more accepted, though that doesn’t change his approach. Even for his sewing show, the materials will be unconventional: “Wire, paper, cardboard, Taco Bell wrappers, etc. … If the needle can go through it, it’s fair game,” he says.

WHY Louisville owner Will Russell says, “He takes what others throw away and transforms it into art, salvaging nostalgia with his own unique twist.” The images in that show continue the distorted-childhood-memories theme of his “Glitches” exhibition — Wonder Woman, Batman, Evel Knievel and characters from “Star Wars,” “Lost in Space” and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” are manipulated fondly.


“Visible Man” by Scott Scarboro

On Sept. 22, Scarboro will give an artist lecture at JTCT, discussing his art from college through recent videos and public works. “I will also touch on resourcefulness and the flexibility of using what is around you to create,” he says. His approach wasn’t always rewarded. “In college, I was asked to make some large sculptural pieces for a bar in Lexington,” he says, “but when I brought them some things I made, they refused to install them because the junk was too dirty.”

JCTC curator Lisa Simon has known Scarboro for several years, going back to when they both had workspaces in the Cinderblock Gallery near what has become NuLu. She contacted him to ask about using some of his work in the school’s Krantz Art Gallery at First and Chestnut streets. “Fortunately, I had all this work that I wasn’t quite ready to put back into the studio yet,” Scarboro says. “So I took the show down at the Green Building Gallery, left the stuff in my car overnight and reinstalled (it) the next day.”

The co-occupant of his current studio space is rubbing off on him more these days. He says son Harlan “inspires me probably more than I him.”



c. 2014 Insider Louisville