Founded in 2000 by the Zahawy brothers, Living Fire blend various regional styles of Kurdish music together with other local traditions, to present a complete musical portrait of Kurdistan , a stateless homeland which lies with the modern boudraries of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and the southern Caucasus. The musical and poetic heritage of the Kurds is incredibly rich and varied, but now, due to the various catastrophes that have befallen the Kurdish nation in recent decades, this heritage is in danger of weakening or even, in some cases, disappearing altogether.
Azad Zahaway grew up in Khanaqin, a small town in the Kurdish part of Iraq. He started learning music as a boy from his grandfather, who was a dervish Sufi musician. Unlike their Turkish counterparts, the Iraqi dervishes don't spin or wear robes, but praise God by playing the daf frame drum with plenty of spirit and singing ancient songs. Zahawy moved to England in 1990 as an asylum seeker. He performs with his younger brother Hussein and his elder brother Hawar, often just in a small trio, but also in a larger orchestral format, with other singers and instrumentalists, known as Living Fire, when circumstances permit.
The Zahawy brothers and Living Fire have played at WOMAD and other festivals all over Europe. A high point was performing with the renowned Kurdish singer Adnan Karim in Sweden last year.
Courtesy of Andy Morgan, July 2004
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