Pour-Afrigha

In this new project, energized by percussion by his son Naghib, Saeid Shanbehzadeh engages in a fruitful dialogue with guitar played by Manu Codjia, one of his most loyal companions on the contemporary jazz circuit. Their improvisations bring a new spirit to the ever-rich Iranian cultural heritage. Paying dual homage to the traditions of his Afro-Iranian mother and his Baluchi father, Shanbehzadeh combines bagpipes and saxophone with the magnificent voice of Rostam Mirlashari, a “Prince of Baluchistan music” exiled in Sweden in 1991. The blending of their music shows the depth of shared inheritance that unites them in this collaboration. In Iran, the descendants of African slaves are defined by three characteristics: their black skin, their music, and their name. Pour-Afrigha (“descendant of Africa”) is the name of Saeid Shanbehzadeh's mother, a third-generation descendant of Africans deported from Zanzibar. Other Afro-Iranian names include Bardaknia (“slave ancestor”), Zangebari (“from Zanzibar”), Abde-Sheikhi (“slave of Sheikh”), Siyahzadeh (“child of black”), Iranzad (“Born in Iran”), and Mobaraki (a reference to Mobarak, a comic black figure of Iranian folk theatre).