Dr. LLoyd Miller: Iran meets Africa

Dr. LLoyd Miller was a musician and ethnomusicologist who bridged the gap between Eastern music and jazz in such a way that it brought out the best of both art forms without sacrificing the integrity of either. He is well known for his research on Persian music, his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Music and Song in Persia” was a major step forward in musicology and continues to provoke interest due to the breadth of its scope and the meticulousness of its scholarship. He studied at Tehran University in Iran under the tutelage of Mahmoud Karimi.

I came across the piece shown in this video entitled “Gol-E-Gandom”, on a Gilles Peterson Brownswood Basement session many years ago and was always struck by the sheer beauty and formidable muscularity of the music contained therein. On this session he was accompanied by the Prestion Kies Quartet and the instrument that is being played by two long mallets is referred to as a “santur”. It is a traditional hammered dulcimer that is used in classical Iranian music with its origins dating back to Mesopotamia about 3500 years ago. The commingling of the piano ala McCoy Tyner, the santur and the drums produce a very distinctive effect on the listener; it is the intersection between Iran and Africa, or at the risk of sounding naive, Sufism and jazz.