The roots of flamenco, blues, ciganne, manugge and classical music is from Mesopotamia? How can this be? Gypsies originate from Mesopotamia? Do all These styles of music have a common root, a mother of all music, dating back thousands of years before Christ? The answer appears to be yes.
This CD contains tribal music and singing from the ancient land of Mesopotamia clearly proving to be true.
This CD is about roots. Imagine a people without music, language, writing, and all art in general. An empty shell with no pearl. The music, and particularly the singing in this CD, comes from the ancient culture of Mesapotamia. Its people and its language are the direct decendants of indigenous people known today as Assyrian; not to be confused with the country of Syria. The ancient empire of Mesapotamia ended in 612 B.C. due to civil war. The internal chaos permitted neighbouring rulers to take over the land. Since then the indigenous people have never regained their homeland, and have been persecuted by successive regimes. They fearlessly walked into the furnaces of fire for their mother land - in the words of an Aramaic poet. In the past three thousand years they have suffered genocide, deportation, exile and enslavement. They have been denied all rights, and discriminated against by many nations. Regardless of what has happened they have kept their culture, customs, ancient language of Aramaic, music, poetry, and dance alive through a written and oral tradition. Thus, they have maintained their cultural identity.
The singing on this CD shows many different styles of traditional music which has been passed down orally from generation to generation.
Rafael Fernández Suarez, a Jerezano gypsy scholar, contends that the ancestor of flamenco singers was a Mesopotamian singer probably named a ¨gheta¨- which in ancient Egypt became a ¨jitheo¨ or ¨kitheo¨. He claims the first gypsy tribes in Andalucía had Mesopotamian roots. He will be publishing a book on this theme.
This project began when Jookoo moved, with his family, as a refugee, to Chicago, at the age of 14. The musicians in the community he was part of played their own ethnic music, but he began playing the blues guitar as well. Later on, flamenco drew his interest. As he was listening to flamenco singers such as Juan Telega, Terremoto, Agujeta, his grandmother commented that the voices ¨are of our heritage¨, the same as those of the traditional singing of Rawey, Diwani, Liliana, Bilia. Comparing a tape of his grandmother, made of village singing in these styles, Jookoo was convinced there was a link. He traveled to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, the cradle of flamenco, and took this tape to Manuel Morao, a well-respected flamenco guitarist and entrepreneur. Manuel Morao also immediately drew the comparison between this music and flamenco, wanting to know who the people were. Jookoo replied that his people were direct descendants of the people of Mesopotamia. Manuel Morao remarked that this discovery would stop all debate about the original sources of flamenco, and the gypsy people themselves.
Included with this CD is a booklet that discusses in more detail the evidence behind this thesis. A special ¨thank you¨ goes to Moraito Chico for all his patience and hard work. Another thank you to all the artists who have lent their voices, making this three year project possible. We hope that listeners will enjoy this CD from beginning to end. Many singers who have contributed to this CD are no longer with us. This CD is a tribute to them and their people. Their voices will be with us forever.
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