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Artist: Dave Soldier

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Dave Soldier:

Zajal

Zajal, renowned Downtown composer and instrumentalist Dave Soldier explores the beginning of popular song and locates it 1000 years ago at the intersection of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures in southern Spain. Zajal, along with muwashaha, were the lyrics of medieval Andalusia. While many are still sung today (notably in Lebanon), their offspring are everywhere. On a trip to Spain in 2004, Soldier read about the Andalusian caliphate, when the Muslim, Christian and Jewish com- munities not only coexisted, but co-created much of the world we inhabit today. Together, they produced the novel, cowboy culture, the guitar, the dance suite, the Kabbalah, Maimonides and ibn Arabi and the discovery of the New World. And modern song: the zajal and muwashaha introduced the verse and chorus that are the backbone of popular music. Imitation of Andalusia's singing oud players begat the troubadours and the figure of the wandering poet and singer in its myriad incarnations, from Villon to Joni Mitchell.

Dave Soldier:

Naked Revolution

Released for the one hundredth anniversary of the Soviet Revolution's toppling of the statue of Czar Alexander II at the Kremlin, this is the premiere recording of the socialist realist opera Naked Revolution by composer Dave Soldier with the Russian migr satirical artists Komar & Melamid.

The work was premiered at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and the Kitchen in New York City in 1997. The central conceit was drawn from a series of dreams by Russian immigrants to New York (and in fact were dreams by Vitaly Komar). A collection of satirical heroic paintings in the socialist realist style, American Dreams, were created with the opera and toured museums and galleries and released as an art book: the CD cover and additional art in the CD are from this collection.