Rahim AlHaj's compositions convey beauty of Iraqi culture

Teri Thomson Randall

One month after the first Gulf War, Iraqi oud master Rahim AlHaj fled his homeland for his life. Having already served two brutal prison sentences for his opposition to Saddam Hussein's regime, he managed to escape the country with false travel documents that his mother purchased by selling all her worldly possessions. At the border, officials confiscated his oud, stripping him of his livelihood and essentially taking a piece of his soul. AlHaj has called that moment the saddest in his life.

After nine years in exile in Jordan and Syria, the musician received permission to immigrate to the United States. The Immigration and Naturalization Service placed him in Albuquerque, where he has lived since March 2000.

An exile in a foreign land, AlHaj became an ambassador of several kinds: first, for the oud - still largely unfamiliar to the Western ear though it is the grandfather of all stringed instruments, with a history dating back 5,000 years to the Sumerian age; and second, for peace, through his soft-spoken, sincere words during his concerts and his haunting, profoundly moving music that speaks of the beauty and spirit of his culture. On Saturday, Oct. 25, AlHaj performs a concert of new compositions, accompanied by a string quartet, at the Awakening Museum in Santa Fe. The performance celebrates the release of AlHaj's second CD, Live in New York: Iraqi Music in a Time of War, recorded by ethnomusicologist Steve Feld on his new label, VoxLox.

AlHaj studied the oud under the famous Munir Bashir and Salim Abdul Kareem at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, where he won awards for composition. During his years in exile he performed solo concerts in prestigious venues throughout Europe and the Arab world, including at the Egyptian Opera House in Cairo, the Arab World Institute in Paris, the National Cultural Center in Manama, Bahrain, and the Royal Cultural Center in Amman, Jordan.

When he came to Albuquerque, INS officials paid him a visit to tell him they had found him a job at McDonalds. "What is McDonalds?" AlHaj asked.

"It is a restaurant," they told him.

"A restaurant? I've performed in the great concert halls in the Arab world. I am well-known throughout Europe. I don't perform in restaurants."

When the men explained to AlHaj that McDonald's wasn't interested in his music, he was crestfallen and seriously considered taking the next plane back to Syria. "I had little English, no friends," he said during a recent interview at the Flying Star Café in Albuquerque. "I thought, 'How can I rebuild my career? How can I establish myself?' It was to me impossible." A friend in Washington, D.C., encouraged AlHaj to give Albuquerque a chance. Within a few months AlHaj gave a sold-out performance at Keller Hall at the University of New Mexico. Other gigs followed in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos and Dallas, Texas. He released a CD of his original compositions called The Second Baghdad, available on cdbaby.com. Ali MacGraw became a big fan.

His second CD, Iraqi Music in a Time of War, was recorded live at Sufi Books in New York City on April 5, 2003, during the second Gulf War. It includes AlHaj's spoken introductions for each piece, in which he describes, sometimes with great emotion, the once beautiful city of Baghdad - destroyed twice by war during his lifetime - his most recent telephone conversation with his mother while bombs were falling 50 meters from her home, and his conversation with his niece and nephew about their dreams for a normal life, without sanctions.

AlHaj performed the concert in New York at Feld's invitation - Feld was at the time director of the Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University. Feld recorded the concert for AlHaj as a souvenir for his visit to New York. But in time Feld realized that what had happened that night was so powerful that it needed to be shared.

"It wasn't just a music concert, it was a peace demonstration," Feld said during a recent telephone interview. "It was a remarkable testimony to how music can advocate for peace and compassion in a time of war." With AlHaj's permission, Feld made a CD of the recording. It is the first release on Feld's VoxLox label, which will advocate for human rights and acoustic ecology.

During our interview AlHaj spoke of his love for the city that has adopted him and of the mission he now sees for his music. "Over there I'm already known," he said of his Arab homeland. "In Europe they know me. But here I have a great opportunity to help American people understand this kind of music. It is important for me as a composer to make a bridge between Western and Eastern music." Toward that goal, AlHaj has written numerous compositions for oud and Western instruments. Arab ears are accustomed to hearing these combinations, AlHaj said, but Western ears are not.

"Nobody here has heard the oud with a string quartet before," AlHaj said. "It is difficult for them [the quartet] because they need to know quarter tones. To me, as a musician, it makes the bridge stronger and stronger. We can present our culture, our passion and our story.

"I am having a lot of fun," he added.