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2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 |
| Rana Farhan (2011) | |
|---|---|
| "Unique" is an over-worked word, but Rana Farhan truly is unique. She's a singer who has managed to fuse a blend of Persian poetry with jazz and blues. She likes to think about what might have happened had Rumi hung out seven centuries later with Lester Young and Billie Holiday.
Born in Iran, Rana grew up listening to whatever music she could bet her hands on--Odetta, Leadbelly, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin … After she'd graduated from Teheran University, New York City called more loudly to her to come than did post-1979-Revolutionary Iran call her to stay. Soon, New York audiences began to pack the clubs to hear Rana, and later there were sold-out shows on the West Coast, at locations such as the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco, and the Glow Bar in Los Angeles. Rana has been featured on BBC Persia TV, Radio France International, and on half a dozen programs here in the United States. Author and journalist Roxana Saberi has called Rana "the symbol of the first generation of underground music in Iran". |
| Pick | Artist | Album | Song | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # 1 | Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass | Fitzgerald and Pass Again | I Aint Got Nothin' but the Blues | OJC |
| # 2 | John Coltrane | Ballads | You Don't Know What Love Is | Impulse |
| # 3 | Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli | Swing de Paris | Minor Swing | Proper |
| # 4 | Bessie Smith and James P. Johnson | Chattanooga Girl | Backwater Blues | Proper |
| # 5 | Bille Holiday | The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol. 9 | God Bless the Child | Columbia |
| # 6 | Wes Montgomery | The Wes Montgomery Trio | 'Round Midnight | OJC |
| # 7 | Tuck and Patti | Paradise Found | Let's Stay Together | Windham Hill |
| # 8 | Sam Cooke | Live at Harlem Square | Bring It on Home to Me | RCA |
| # 9 | Al Green | The Jazz Singers 1919-1994 | Could I Be the One? | Smithsonian Folkways |
| # 10 | Billie Holiday | Lady's Decca Days, Vol. 1 | Good Morning, Heartache | MCA |
| Book | A book of Rumi poetry | |||
| Luxury Item | Stadium speakers | |||
| Tim Garland
26 Apr Ben Goldberg 01 Mar Lua Hadar 08 Mar | Molly Holm
19 Apr Remy Le Boeuf 15 Mar Stephanie Nakasian 18 Jan | Marlena Shaw
29 Mar Ben Sidran 12 Apr |