Látigo - Quartet San Francisco (Violin Jazz Recordings)

Rarely does a self-produced CD of so-called "classical crossover" receive two Grammy nominations. But such is the deserved fate of the second CD from Quartet San Francisco, the Bay Area Ensemble that, only three years after its inception, captured both the Special Prize and the Grand Prize at the 2004 New York City International Tango Competition, sponsored by the Argentine Consulate.

Why tango is considered "crossover" rather than simply classical must have to do with its danceability and powers of seduction. While it may lack snob appeal and airs of the cloister, it certainly lacks not for sophistication. Especially in these hands, the music is irresistible. Take, for example, Hernandez' "Cachita," Chick Corea's "Armando's Rhumba," or one of the most famous tangos of all time, Matos Rodriguez's 1917 classic "La Cumparsita." The titles may not be familiar, but there's a good chance that, if you've heard a fair share of tango, one of these tunes is already inscribed in your memory.

Quartet San Francisco seems to have tango in its blood, swinging and slinking through the notes with flair. The contrast between the unbridled optimism of "Cachita" and the refined melancholy of Astor Piazzolla's mysterious nuevo tango "Melodia en la Menor" could not be greater. Piazzolla makes his insinuating presence known three times, as do two non-Latinos, Leonard Bernstein (in an arrangement of West Side Story's "Cool" by Turtle Island String Quartet founder David Balakrishnan) and the quartet's first violinist Jeremy Cohen, who in "Crowdambo" pays homage to h

is late teacher, Anne Crowden, founder of Berkeley's Crowden School of Music. There's so much unexpected beauty in this music. Wonderfully recorded (one of its Grammy nominations is for Best Engineered Album, Classical) with the bonus of John Santos' percussion on three of its 16 tracks, this CD is destined to spend more time in your player than on the shelf.

Endless Vision: Persian and Armenian Songs - Hossein Alizadeh & Djivan Gasparyan (World Village)

This exquisite musical meeting of Iran and its northern neighbor Armenia proved far more audacious than initially anticipated. When Persian master Hossein Alizadeh (b. 1951) and Armenian virtuoso Djivan Gasparyan (b. 1928) collaborated on several joint concerts in the summer of 2003, they never expected to encounter government opposition. The concerts themselves, performed before enthusiastic crowds of thousands in the serene outdoor environment of Tehran's Niavaran Palace, went off without a hitch. Afterwards, however, Iran's Ministry of Culture, which must approve all audio recordings before they are released in that country, delayed the album's release for two years because Alizadeh had invited one of his longtime pupils, the female singer Afsaneh Rasaei, to perform onstage in the otherwise all-male Hamavayan Ensemble. At last available in Iran and the US, this exceptional meeting of Iranian and Armenian musical traditions has been honored with a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional World Music Album.

"The music of Iran and Armenia is a language shared between the two nations," says Alizadeh. "It's a mirror reflecting history in each phrase." A musical crossroads between three peoples — Armenian, Azeri, and Persian — it reflects the existence of a large, vibrant Armenian community within Iran since the early 16th century.

Both musicians have become well-known to American audiences. The mournful sound of Gasparyan's duduk, a traditional Armenian double-reed woodwind, has been heard in soundtracks to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and Gladiator, and in artistic collaborations with Peter Gabriel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Kronos Quartet. The younger Alizadeh, who received his second Grammy nomination for the two-CD set Faryad , frequently tours the US as part of the trio Masters of Persian Music. He has also written scores for some Iran's best-known "new wave" films, and contributed to the development of the shurangiz , the new six-stringed plucked lute he plays on the album, whose timbre is a hybrid of the traditional Iranian tar , setar, and tanbur.

The album's seven selections includes Hossein Alizadeh's "Birds," a 22-minute setting of a contemporary Iranian poem; Djivan Gasparyan's short improvisation "Armenian Romances;" "Sari Galin," a traditional Armenian song known to most Iranians; and "Tasnif Parvaneh Sho," a setting of an ecstatic love poem by 13th-century homosexual mystic Rumi. The music is oft plaintive, reflecting a depth of experience and wisdom that renders the pronouncements of clerics and politicians petty and irrelevant. On every track, Alizadeh and Gasparyan's soulful flights transcend boundaries of culture and the mind.