Love's Deep Ocean [Import]

Alim Qasimov | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: January 11, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Network Germany
• ASIN: B000046Q3X
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,923 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #4 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Azerbaijan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Captures the Qaimov Charisma, May 6, 2003

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love's Deep Ocean (Audio CD)

Alim Qasimov - Love's Deep Ocean

I have spent many evenings mesmerized by truly incredible performances during my years as a musician and music lover. But rarely have I been as moved and transfixed as an evening I spent at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago two and a half years ago, when I was privileged so see one of Alim Qasimov's first performances in the US. He is a mesmerizing performer...totally committed to his performances and to the Mugham style of singing, of which he is the foremost proponent. His dramatic gestures resemble nothing so much as the gestures of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan...and when the music begins to really move, he seems almost to levitate. Unfortunately, the first few Qasimov CDs I bought after that concert only hinted at the power for this singer in a live setting. However, the current CD, Love's Deep Ocean comes closer than anything I have yet heard to capturing the unique power of this treasured singer.

Qasimov is the greatest representative of the Azerbaijani classical music called Mugham. Mugham, like much other Middle Eastern influenced music, is based on a repertoire of songs passed down throughout the centuries upon which a singer improvises using traditional scales and melodic patterns. The art is a difficult one to master. The lyrics of Mugham songs are often either passionate love songs or spiritual songs influenced by the Sufis...and like the Sufis it is often difficult to separate the secular from the sacred in this music. Qasimov wrings every ounce of emotion from each phrase. At times the voice is so clear and piercing that it sends chills up and down the spine. Other times he is gentle and consoling. I find it impossible not to be deeply moved by this marvelous music, especially the long track Ey Encanlar, which seems to grow in intensity with each new phrase.

Qasimov is backed up on this disc by the traditional ensemble of tar (a long necked lute) and kemenche (a spike fiddle). In addition the singer plays a frame drum. The ensemble is expanded on this CD by the inclusion of other instruments not traditionally associated with pure Mugham including the duduk and a version of the clarinet. Qasimov's daughter also sings on many of the tracks. While her voice doesn't not have the power of her father's it is nonetheless very effective. And in the climaxes of the songs, when the two singers reach a unison, the effect is devastating.

If you have any interest in music of the world, this CD is an absolute must-have! Qasimov is the only world music singer to take up the fallen mantle of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And if you ever get the chance to hear him live....run!!! You'll be glad you did.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Master, November 8, 2007

By 

R. J MOSS (Alice Springs, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love's Deep Ocean (Audio CD)

Qasimov sings from unconcern for himself, the heart set free, so to speak. Mugham teachers divided the human voice into low voice, breast voice, middle voice and high voice, and each of these voices had to have range of two and a half octaves, at least. Judge for yourself where Qasimov sits in this field. I have been a devotee of his for close on a decade and this, as noted in other reviews is one, if not the best of his many releases. Throughout, and as always, he caresses his gaval, a one-sided percussion instrument; specially stretched sturgeon's skin over walnut shell ring with small metal rings attched to its interior, a sweet accompaniment to his trills, tremelo and mordants. Referring to the Koran, Qasimov says we should,'live as if we were passed away already. ..Every concert is a trial for me, and every time I die and return to life again and again Spectators come to feel acutely an inimitable breath of eternity.' Few of his CDs are available outside Azerbaijan, indeed outside Baku. Though in Baku, there is a bewildering supply. I went in search of him this year, and though close to his trail in both the moutainous copper-smithing village of Lahic, and the Mugham club in Baku, missed the master on both occasions. There are many fine exponents of this raptuous music. Indeed a fine sampling can be heard on one of the channels of the Azeri airlines inflight service.Thirty-six thousand feet is an appropriate altitude for this heavenly material.Qulu Asgarov is also worth checking out. I was indulged in the fantasia Bath house, in Baku, to another master singing, as we took our post ablution chai, and explaining the text to two avid acolytes; a glorious twenty minutes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!!, November 27, 2005

By 

Rizgar (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love's Deep Ocean (Audio CD)

Alim Qasimov is ultimately the best musician to represent Azerbaijani classical music (mugham). His voice and performance are miraculous, the instrumentalists acompanying him are very skillful and enthusiastic and the musical arrangement is great. The songs selected here - mostly love songs - are highly expressive and dynamic. Qasimov's daughter's voice is beautiful and her performance is good, but her voice is not as powerful as her father's. The liner notes are very sufficient.

I can confidently claim that this is one of the best albums of Azerbaijani classical mugham and Qasimov's music.