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General Description of Work: MUSIC: Ismail Alyassiri plays the ’ud (lute), a pear-shaped, unfretted, 11-stringed instrument found throughout the Middle East. Ismail plays and sings traditional Iraqi rural tunes that focus on unrequited love, much as American country music songs do, and also composes his own tunes.
The ’ud’s name is derived from the Arabic for “wood.” The instrument’s short, fretless neck contributes to its unique sound, allowing for sliding tones along the 5 pairs of strings and the bass drone. The ’ud also a bent head, where the tuning pegs are located, and a rounded back constructed of bowed ribs of wood. The deep bowl of the back allows to instrument to resonate. The European lute is a descendent of the ’ud.
FISHING: Ismail, who grew up near rivers in Iraq, is also a proficient seine (net) knitter and seine fisherman. Seine (mesh) nets are used throughout the world. They are "knit" with a single "needle" in what is really a form of crocheting. Nets are raised and thrown so that they fan out in the water to capture a school of fish. In Iraq, explains Ismail Alyassiri, fishermen use two nets as weirs and set them up to two kilometres apart to gather the fish in one contained area.
Bio: MUSIC: Ismail Alyassiri is originally from Nasiriyah, southeast of Baghdad. As a child and young man, Ismail often heard neighbors and family members sing traditional Iraqi country songs, though he himself prefered more urban music. In 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War, Ismail and his family fled Iraq for Saudi Arabia. After years in a refugee camp there, the Al Yassiri family came to Cedar Rapids, IA in 1995.
While in the Saudi Arabian refugee camp, Ismail and his cousins, Salah and Haider, were able to study with the protégé of Iraq’s most revered ’ud maker. Haider became proficient enough to make his own instruments, and after the family settled in Iowa, Ismail helped Haider by doing the lathe work to create tuning pegs for the ’ud. Unfortunately, even though he knows how to do so, Ismail has neither the time nor the equipment to make ’uds himself.
Playing the ’ud was was another matter, however, and in the early 2000s, Ismail, along with Salah and Haider, formed Arabian Tone, which performed traditional and popular Iraqi music at the 2000 Iowa Culture & Language Conference and the 2001 Festival of Iowa Folklife. In April 2009, he performed for the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art’s Middle Eastern Day and in August that year for the Midwest Folklife Festival in Bishop Hill, IL.
FISHING: Besides playing traditional Iraqi music, Ismail Alyassiri and his cousins knit their own seine nets to fish in the rivers near Cedar Rapids. Ismail learned to fish and knit nets from his father, who is still a fisherman in Iraq. Here in Iowa, they catch carp as well as a big-mouthed fish. Traditional preparation methods include frying, smoking, and in soup.
Services Offered 1: Performance with drummer and/or band
Services Offered 2: Performance and talk about 'ud and traditional Iraqi music and song
Services Offered 3: Talk and demonstration about seine net knitting and fishing
Regions: All Regions
Months available: : All but evenings and weekends only.
Performance fees, mileage charges, related to arts services: : $200 per day plus travel expenses (mileage, food, lodging)
Accessibility accommodations, space requirements, equipment and all other needs that should be met by sponsors: : Call for details
