The sounds of Azerbaijan come to Livingston

Musicians Elnour Mikailov on the kemancha, a fiddle-like bow instrument, and Mahmoud Salah on daf, a finger hand drum, are not pictured.
    
A crowd of about 100 stayed for a third encore when several people yelled out an appreciative "One more! One more!" during a standing ovation for an ancestral Azerbaijani folklore music performance at the Livingston-Park County Library, Wednesday night.

Dressed in traditional gold-trimmed threads, "Ghadim Sharq," an acoustic group of four from Baku, Azerbaijan, treated people to the ancient melodies of mugham - a type of music more than 1,000-years old.

"It's this ancient thing that resonates in my soul," said central Asian scholar and longtime Livingston resident Thomas Goltz, who helped bring the group to the library.

Mugham is a style of music rooted from the Azerbaijani culture stemming from the Caucasus Mountain range. The music can be compared to an amalgam of cultures, including the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Although the traditional structure of mugham is strictly followed, the band made room for solo-like jams weaving in and out of each other, reminiscent of a Grateful Dead show.

Goltz, who spent several years in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s as a journalist covering the war with Armenia, said he was inspired to bring Ghadim Sharq to Montana because it was time to shed light on a great culture.

"I've spent a lot of bad times in Azerbaijan," Goltz said. "Most of my times there I experienced death and destruction."

More than 35,000 Azerbaijanis died during the war, he added.

"This was a chance for me to spread music and joy. It was a chance for me to give back - to give back to the Azerbaijani people and to Livingston," Goltz said.

One member of the audience, an Azerbaijani refugee from the war and perhaps the only Azerbaijani living in Montana, drove all the way from his home in Billings toexperience his homeland's music.

"This means a lot to me. It is very special," said Vahid Akmuerdiev, who moved to Billings nine years ago after becoming a refugee.

Akmuerdiev is now a very successful used car dealer in Billings, Goltz said.

"I grew up with this music," Akmuerdiev said. "Mugham is thousands of years old. It has never changed. There are a few more adaptions, but the overall structure is the same way it was so many years ago."

Akmuerdiev also said he thinks it is important to educate the world about the people of Azerbaijan. He said the culture is one of the oldest in the world, but afterdecades of Soviet Union influence, the ancient culture is largely unknown to theWest.

"This is really great because so many people in Montana have never even heard of the country Azerbaijan," said Akmuerdiev. "It's beautiful there is such a big turnouthere in Livingston."

Most of the turnout could be attributed to Goltz, who made Azerbaijan famous locally by writing "Azerbaijan Diary."

But Montanans in general have been extremely receptive to the traditional folklore music. Ghadim Sharq performed for a sold-out crowd in Billings at Rocky Mountain College Tuesday night and a packed house at the University of Montana Thursday.

The group also performed in Chicago and Los Angeles, but Montana was its most memorable of the locations where they performed, said Elin Suleymanov, consulate general of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles, who attended the Livingston concert.

"The human encounter here in Montana is really unbelievable compared to L.A. and Chicago," Suleymanov said after the performance.

"People here are way open minded - even politicians," he added. "Livingston, the culture, is about as far away from Azerbaijan as possible. But there was a real connection with the audience."

Suleymanov, who along with Goltz helped bring the group to the U.S., said there is an obvious practical reason for bringing them here.

"Music is what connects people more than language," he said.

Suleymanov said the band is in the U.S. playing music to help bridge the gap between the cultures of the West and East.

He said music is a universal language everyone can understand.

"What 'Ghadim Sharq' accomplished in one hour of music here in Livingston was more than even a large number of academic lectures," said Suleymanov.

Goltz was enthused about the reaction to the group's music in Montana and has plans to bring them back again, along with other traditional musicians.

"I'm doing this because I want to continue what I have established between the treasure state of Montana and my beloved second adopted home, Azerbaijan," Goltz said.

Goltz, who raised in North Dakota, said Livingston is his first adopted home.

By Garrett Cheen