It was in France, at the end of Georges Pompidou’s presidency and under Giscard d’Estaing’s, during the Viet-Nam war and the oil crisis, that the compositions that were to become Rahmann’s foundation were born in my mind. When I met Christian Vander at the Gibus, most of them were already written. My proposal to welcome him and his band Magma in my rehearsal room found a favorable echo and there is no doubt that their presence in my home for 3 years was a fire that warmed my creativity. My meeting with the pianist Michel Rutigliono was a liberation of the sound horizon, so much his musical genius carried my compositions to the zenith of their interpretation. Our complicity was such that I had the impression of having four hands linked directly to the heart, in this sense and I say it with humility, our unison was close to perfection and our improvisations had the richness of freedom.
The first compositions of what was to become Rahmann’s repertoire often imposed themselves on me frantically, during the night, forcing me to get up in an imperious way to fix them and then return to my sleep, exhausted but so serene. Themes, bass lines, rhythms and their images were springing up from within.
Gil Scott Heron had warned me when we met in Castellet in 1976, “You are the fruit, but they don’t want your roots, the only link to your tree they will give you is a rope…” My first album was destroyed by racism, scrapped in 1980 despite the success it had met, and this, just a few months after its release…In 1980, the artistic director of Polydor, Patrick Zelnik, had taken this racist decision of exclusion and had told me, “I would never advertise to Arabs!”… He is the current president of Naïve.
Mad Sheer Khan
Since 1996, the record is again available at Musea, thanks to Francis Grosse, Bernard Gueffier and all their team.
Faced with the racial attacks that my family has encountered in France, dignity and appeasement have always been the answers. Cynicism and contempt for my culture of origin made me adopt the clothes of my great grandparents, even the noble turban.
Thus my image has become both a filter and a revealer of the outside world towards me.
Author of a unique, but oh so sublime album in 1979, RAHMANN offers a world jazz-rock Progressive precursor, mixing jazz with Arab music. The complex and sought-after art of the guitarist Mahamad HADI (aka MAD SHEER KHAN), is energetic and very constructed, prolix in convoluted rhythmic breaks. The sounds of the ney or other oriental instruments (Oud, electric sitar, saz, derbouka…) complete advantageously a music very close to the one proposed by MAGMA or BRAND X, crossed by a fiery guitar, nervous keyboards and the bass of Gérard PREVOST. Very original, this eponymous opus powerful, lyrical, luxuriant and refined synthesizes the best jazz-rock (THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA…) with oriental music and cannot be compared to any other attempt. The CD includes four bonus tracks. Note the guest-appearances of Didier LOCKWOOD, Lisa DELUXE, GUEM etc. Maybe the reissue of the year 1998. Simply magnificent !!!
Musea Record