Afghan Music on Piano

“This album was recorded in 2004 in Bloomington, IN, USA. It has been waiting under the carpet for 17 years and now is finally being released on the birth/death anniversary of the famous Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir, who originally recorded the songs on this album. I learned them from an Afghan singer named Waheed Mardanzai who was living in Bloomington in those days. Waheed hired me and my band Salaam to arrange and record these songs in an album he was to sing in. There was a conflict between him and the band in the middle of the recording session, upon which the project was abandoned. After that, I arranged my own versions of these songs for solo piano, in a manner they were never performed before. My intention was to release them that year, but other things took precedence in life, which kept pushing this release to this day.

I dedicate this album to the memory of Ahmad Zahir and the Afghan People who have been deprived of their rights, their freedom and justice to this day. “