1999 Genetic Memories is an homage to the past with an eye towards the future. Full of questions and perhaps even some answers; it is our way of greeting the coming millennium. May peace be with you--Al-Andalus

1. Secrets 2. Marrakesh 3. Katrinile 4. Echos 5. Chiaroscuro 6. Yo M'Enamore 7. Portrait of Zahra 8. Afgano 9. Absence 10.Messenger 11. Ancestors (50 minutes total) Listen to and buy Genetic Memories here

"It's a time capsule not unlike the one predicted to rest in the sands below the Sphinx or Great Pyramid in Egypt. However, Genetic Memories doesn't whisper to us of alien planetary rulers and seeders but our very human cultural ancestors that are given contemporary voices to once again roam this domain in our minds and hearts." ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM

INDIVIDUAL TRACK INFORMATIONListen to and buy Genetic Memories here

To order CD's click to see all selections You may now order our CD's online secure, fast and easy through CDBably.com

Are you uncomfortable with ordering online? Thats ok, if you prefer you can...

Order CD's toll-free from a real person! 9am to 6pm California time: Toll Free Number: 1-800-BUY-MY-CD (credit or debit card)

You can also fax CD orders here: Fax: (503)296-2370 (please include your email address)

Or Contact CD Baby Email: cdbaby@cdbaby.com or call CD BAby for any reason at all (503)595-3000

Contact Al-Andalus for any reason at all directly E-Mail (music@andalus.com) (we are in Morocco, so we don't have all those nice convenient phone numbers:)

1. Secrets Tarik y Julia Banzi	ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: Genetic Memories opens with "Secrets" and an ambient-rich lament on solo Ney that, once piano, guitar and various hand percussions set up a slowly swirling pulse, soon turns into a mournful melody. In accord with the album's temporal locus in Medieval Spain, we're quickly treated to strong aural visions of the Alhambra or other architectural remnants of its celebrated Moorish empire.
2. Marrakesh Tarik Banzi	ABC RADIO (LUCKY OCEANS): (suitably dense-mysterioso-rhythmic musical portrait of the fabled Moroccan city. Key elements are the composer's frame drums, metal castanets, sintir/guimbri, oud, other percussion & the splatty-squeezy trumpet of guest, Gavin Bondy). ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: On the "Marrakesh" interlude, percolating drums, energetic bass pattern, the raspy cries of the trumpet and faint voice fragments then transport us to the din of an outdoor North-African bazaar with its dark-skinned faces and colorful wares to which Tarik's trenchant tremolos and rumbling runs on oud provide a natural counterpoint.
3. Katrinile: Traditional from S. India sung in Tamil. Lyrics: Kalki Krishnamurthy Arranged by Tarik & Julia Banzi.	ABC RADIO (LUCKY OCEANS): (Melodious, sweetly-yearning south Indian song, sung in Tamil by Ranjani Krishnan. She's accompanied by Tarik's oud, elec bass & percussion, & Julia's guitar. The song - known in full as "katrinile varum geetam" - was written for "Meera", a Tamil hit film of 1945, about the Rajastahni "saint", Meerabai . It's one of Indian cinema's all-time "hit" songs). ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: "Katrinile" marries the soulful Karnatic vocals of Ranjani Krishnan not to sitar and tablas but oud and dumbek and thus points to similar stylistic mergers in Thierry 'Titi' Robin's gipsy ensemble in France. The faster-paced
4. Echos	"Echos" with its darbuka trills dances atop one of those impossible aggregate rhythms that combines various odd meters and embodies a gay yet muscular and virile spirit.
5. Chiaroscuro T&J Banzi
6. Yo M'Enamore' Traditional Sephardic Jewish song from al-andalus sung in Ladino. Arranged T & J Banzi	ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: "Yo M'Enamori" is an ancient Sephardic tune with a plain but haunting melody sung in the original Ladino language of the Spanish Jews. On the noteworthy album by Santa Fe vocalist Consuelo Luz called Dezeo [Apricot Records], this type of song becomes the backbone of an entire production dedicated to the Ladino culture.
7. Portrait of Zahra	ABC RADIO (LUCKY OCEANS): (Arabic-classical in form ­ spare & beautiful modal improvisation for solo oud {fretless, Arabic lute}. Zahra is Tarik & Julia Banzi's daughter ). ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: "Portrait of Zahra" is a free-form solo oud improvisation that echoes thematic fragments of earlier tracks..
8. Afgano Traditional song from Afghanistan, Arranged by T&J Banzi	ABC RADIO (LUCKY OCEANS): haunting instrumental version of a plaintive, Afghani song/chant with the flavour retained. Oud, flamenco guitar, piano, ac bass, tabla ). ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: "Afgano" is a traditional song from Afghanistan translated by the Banzis into a slowly limping but stately instrumental number. It epitomizes the entire production's milieu of a darkish opulence and languishing splendor, as though musically we were drifting down the halls of an exiled Moghul prince's opium-dream induced memory palace.
10. Absence: Music Composed by Tarik & Julia Banzi Text by Abu Bakr Al-Turtushi (1059-1126) Eastern Al-Andalus Recitation: Zarvox.	ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: The following track "Absence" breaks this organic mold with distinct Jazz influences of syncopated piano chords, drum kit groove, Ney riffs and voice coder recitation and is the experimental but odd oud- man out among these tunes. Linear Notes: A Middle Ages love Poem from Al-Andalus recitated by a 20th Century Computer. "Now that composers & physicists are at last working together, and music is again linked with science, as it was in the Middle Ages..." (Edgard Varese) Now you know why your computer crashes
10. Inherited Messenger: By Tarik Banzi and Joe Heinemann	ENJOY THE MUSIC.COM: "Inherited Messenger" transplants the theme from the earlier "Echos" into an oud/piano duet and shows, just like Anouar Brahem continues to do with his work on ECM, how the oud can be lifted out of its classical Arabian milieu and successfully integrated into a thoroughly modern yet perfectly suitable setting.
11. Ancestors: Music & Text By Tarik & Julia Banzi

HERE IS WHAT SOME FOLKS WHO HAVE PURCHASED GENETIC MEMORIES HAVE TO SAY:

***** (5 STARS):  One of the best East-meets-West bands of all time, and a joy to listen to! Reviewer: World Discoveries.net   (click for website) Al Andalus is a project of Moroccan-born oud player Banzi and his wife Julia Banzi, who plays guitar. Usually in a group like this a "pretty girl" sings or dances and yes, the group does have two ladies who fill that role, but Julia plays fine backup guitar that helps underline the oud playing of Tarik. She receives some great help from Joe Henieman on piano. Tarik also overdubs on bass, percussion, ney (a reed instrument), sentir and keyboards. Ranjani Kirshnan does a great job of the mostly-haunting vocals, including one tune from Southern India sung in Tamil - this from a group that claims to be based on the music of Moorish-controlled Andalusia Spain (when Spain was controlled by Muslims, but Jews and Christians supposedly lived in peace and harmony with them. This idylic scene was destroyed by the rise to power of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Spanish Inquisition). I got the feeling GENETIC MEMORIES only offers a slice of what this band can really do, but even if VISION is much the same, that's nothing to be ashamed of: Al Andalus is one of the best East-meets-West bands of all time, and a joy to listen to!	Listen to and buy Genetic Memories here ***** (5 STARS) What a joy and delight! 'Deep' listening like the Kronos Quartet Reviewer: Janet Sage What a joy and delight! I find this album soothing but exciting at the same time... How can that be? I listen to it alot and I find (like their other CD Illumination) I hear something new each time I listen to it. Its a 'deep' cd. When they do the traditional, its priceless! When they do their works it just makes you admire them all the more that the group is creative AND traditional at the same time. This is what the old masters were... they were innovators, improvisors & not copy cats. Whether they get credit for it or not, these guys are the leaders of the pack. Just try to catch up with them! I think Al-Andalus/Banzi are like the Kronos Quartet of world music.
***** (5 STARS)  Not to be missed! Reviewer: Shari This cd transports me out of my little midwest town into another world. Sometimes you really need that kind of music in your life!	***** (5 STARS)  Great CD! Reviewer: Roberto Almenar This is an awesome CD and I wanted to buy it for many of my friends for this seasons holiday gifts. Darn, too bad its out of print. I hope they get some back soon!

LYRICS FROM GENETIC MEMORIES

Absence Every night I scan the heavens with my eyes I scan the heavens seeking the star that you are contemplating I question travelers from the four corners of the earth. I question travelers hoping to meet one who has breathed your fragrance. When the wind blows I make sure it blows in my face. When the wind blows the breeze might bring me news of you I wander over roads without purpose without aim. I wander perhaps a song will sound your name Secretly I study every face I see I study every face hoping to glimpse a trace of your beauty your beauty your name your fragrance I scan the heavens I scan the heavens I scan the heavens......

Waves We float nameless inside drops of water. We float, for who knows how long & there is nothing but water while creation awaits us. The formless in all forms there is no sound there is no silence we just float while creation awaits us in that water. I know that there are seeds & within the seeds are flowers & life, is just hiding inside there. Some of those seeds sprout & some of them don't I don't know why I mean really why (in a big way why) not just the reason for the why that everyone gives us in science or philosophy all those guesswork answers that everyone comes up with Like they know like anyone knows or isn't scared for their children or themselves or any life that came out of that formless water we floated in for so long Thinking about seeds, water, sprouting hidden life it makes me wonder about what is hidden inside of you and me that we can't see that maybe will sprout someday & maybe, won't... Last night I heard someone say "Our lives change for good and bad every moment that we breathe" & I wandered if this moment was good or bad & if I was breathing or just looking out from that water.

Ancestors Last night, I met all my ancestors together They came to my dream, to meet me They came to my dream, to tell me that I had as many ancestors as I did cells in my body they were all the colors They were Red,Yellow, Blue and Green & they spoke all the languages. I understood. Suddenly I understood. I started to count my cells, to count myself, to count my life, & to count those drops of water. Then the sound of their horses faded away...

Beginnings Big wet drops sometimes I like to put my face up into the rain taste it and feel the drops the water all over Icover myself with water I cover myself with an umbrella and listen to the rhythm like tiny footsteps the drops are like little lives that drain into the gutter or to a far off ocean or onto a lake or some hard pavement or onto the grass to make things grow Big wet drops of water zillions of them all nameless but all full of motion & rhythm of life floating inside them are our dreams our ancestors our lives our beginnings we float... nameless inside drops of water while creation awaits us...

Listen to and buy Genetic Memories here

PRODUCTION INFORMATION: Produced & Engineered by Tarik Banzi
Recorded B&B Studios in Santa Barbara,
California & Portland, Oregon
Graphic Design: Tarik Banzi
Project Direction: Laura Horn & Ben Cohen
All Music composed by Tarik & Julia Banzi except 3,6,8.
Text in Absence by Abu Bakr Al-Turtushi (1059-1126)
Text in Ancestors by Tarik & Julia Banzi

Tarik Banzi: Oud, Ney, Bass, Sentir, Keyboards, Percussion.
Julia Banzi: Guitar, Recitation.
Ranjani Krishnan: Vocals.
Joe Henieman: Piano.
Martin Zarzar: Percussion on track 4.
Gavin Bondy: Trumpet on track 2.

By Srajan Ebaen (EnjoyTheMusic.com)
Genre: Moorish chamber music

"Sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council of Portland, Oregon, Al-Andalus is an ensemble that,as the name implies, concentrates on music inspired by Moorish-ruled Spain during the 8th to 15th centuries when Muslims, Jews & Christians peacefully coexisted side by side in an inspired cultural exchange of the sciences and arts.

Headed by Tarik Banzi on oud and various other instruments, and his wife Julia on flamenco guitar, the ensemble encompasses up to nine performers during live performances - including dancers -- and on this release features Ranjani Krishnan on Tamil and Sephardic Ladino vocals and Joe Heineman on piano. Martin Zarzar and Gavin Bondy appear on percussion and trumpet on one track each.

The previous Al-Andalus album Illumination has occupied top-drawer status in my personal collection for years. I kept hoping that the group's masterful exploits wouldn't limit themselves to one solitary example of recorded greatness. While today's Genetic Memories is apparently a 1999 release, despite searching compulsively for a follow-up album to Illumination I had never come across its listing anywhere until late last year when it surfaced on Tower Records website. Because it is a worthy successor to Al-Andalus' glorious precedent, I decided to include it in my "Best of 2001" grouping, thereby creatively bending my own rule that such albums had to be new releases.

Moroccan-born Tarik grew up immersed in the Andalusian tradition and played in Flamenco, Jazz and Middle-Eastern music circles throughout the 80s. Together with Jewish musicologist Dr. Javier Sanchez, he later formed the group Al-Fatihah that, in Spain, apparently enjoys the reputation as one of the finest formations for Middle Eastern music. He has collaborated with Flamenco greats such as Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar, Enrique Morente and Carlos Carli and introduced the use of the dumbek into mainstream Flamenco vernacular. In the late 80's, Tarik and Julia formed the group Amal together with Maria Ahmed and Rasqui Boujemaa and their joint students Fain Duenas and Vicente Molina who later went on to form the popular group Radio Tarifa.

Colorado-born Julia studied Flamenco guitar under Spanish masters Isidro Munoz and Manolo Sanlucar and is presently working on her Doctoral degree in Ethnomusicology (a.b.d.) at the University of California at Santa Barbara where she concentrates on the study of the Andalusian Women's Orchestras of Morocco and Spanish Flamenco. Joe Heinemann is the group's pianist and has toured and recorded with artists like Quincy Jones, Robben Ford, Robert Cray, Archie Shepp, Eddie Harris, Steve Miller and Ronnie Montrose. He is currently appearing with the Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band and the Patty Austin Band. "

click to see all selections