Khalid Rashid was born in Sulaimania in Kurdistan. He is widely recognized as one of the best interpreters of Kurdish music. He plays the balaban, an oboe as well as the ney, the blûr, the ûd and various percussion instruments. In his twenty-year career, he has studied not only Kurdish music, but also Persian and Azerbaijani music. For several years he has been working in Sweden at the Westerburg
… Institute of Folk Music. The balaban, the main instrument on this CD, is a traditional oboe with a very long and wide double reed. The Kurdish balaban is very old and can also be found under the name duduk and mey in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. On this CD Khalid Rashid uses four different kinds of balabans. On two of the nine songs he is accompanied by zarb player Abdollah Moftizadeh. All songs are traditional, arranged by Rashid. (GO) _more
