Navaz began as a musical collaboration between Neda Jalali and Eric Tompkins. Eric's extensive experience playing jazz and Latin music and his interest in world music perfectly compliments Neda's enchanting voice. Much of the music of Navaz is rooted in the Sufi poetry of Hafez and Rumi, while some of it has a more contemporary Persian sound fused with Spanish, Brazilian and jazz rhythms. Their music is both soothing and rhythmically intense. Navaz will make you want to dance or take you on an exotic journey to faraway places.
Band Members:
Neda Jalali (vocals)
Neda Jalali is from Iran and sang for many years in clubs and restaurants in Europe. Although Neda mainly sings in Farsi, she also sings in Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, and English. She frequently opened the stage for well known Persian musicians such as Hayedeh, Aslani, and Leyla. In the late 1990s she toured England with Iranian superstar Moein.
Eric Tompkins (guitar)
Since the 1970s, Eric has been played all kinds of guitar styles - country, blues, jazz, Latin and classical. A few years ago he recorded a CD titled Fellini's Hat Band which featured (among others) the brilliantly innovative mandolin playing of Willie P. Bennett. In 2005 Eric produced a concert of his work with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has been writing and playing music with Neda.
Ali Razmi (tar, setar)
Ali Razmi obtained his MA in music at the Art University in Tehran. He is an innovative and creative tar and setar musician with over 17 years of experience as a soloist. Ali has performed in a wide variety of genres – traditional, pop, fusion. Among his many achievements, he has performed as a soloist for the Iranian Philharmonic Orchestra, improvised with Master Shajarian (Iran's leading singer in traditional Iranian music), and worked with Mehran Modiri, and the Mohamad Esfahani's group, Iran's top pop music performers. In 2002 Ali performed at the Jahane Khusrau Music Festival, in New Delhi. as a member of the Rumi Group.
For larger festivals and concerts we are often joined by percussionist Bardia Sadeghi (tonbec, daf) and santourist Reza Sadeghi. The full ensemble performed at CBC’s Studio One as part of the ‘Canada Live’ series. More recently, they performed at the 2008 Surrey Fusion Festival.