I wept when I heard Karim Kaban; the innovative and legendary singer had died on January 14, 2016. His magical voice was so penetrating that it would even tear open the most heartless. For seventy years, he granted us the grace and glory of his voice: tender, dreamy, melancholic, caressing and soulful. Every tone and tune he has sung runs through our veins. Karim Kaban elevated Kurdish music to new heights with his unique and innovative style. His songs broke down the artificial boundaries and brought his parceled land together. Alas, he did not live to see his dream of Kurdish independence come true, but his songs have shaped our values, visions, and dreams for life, love, and liberty. He was buried in his hometown of Sulaimani as his fans and mourners sang along his memorable “tamani pir asrinim” (My tear-filled life). Karim Kaban was 89 years old. Born Abdul Karim Jalal Mahmood in 1927 to a religiously literate family in the cultural capital of Southern Kurdistan in Sulaimani, he became literate, as it was customary then in a religious school. The singer sang his first song entitled “reh e deldari (How to be a Sweetheart) in 1941; Kaban organized a major cultural and musical venue as an avant garde in Baghdad in 1945. Like all Kurdish singers he had an arduous life, a life of exile, imprisonment, and struggle against oppressive conditions. He was a member and contributor to the political movement of Kurdistan. He was exiled from 1963 to 1969 within Iraq and again in 1974. He had performed with a number of musical bands including one of the most popular ones the Sulaimani Music Band. Karim Kaban was in love with his homeland with a craving for his old town and the simplicity of life that was being lost to the disfiguring shadows of consumerism and commercialization. His songs are filled with the love of his homeland, people, introspections, retrospections, cultural rituals, beauty, love and longings. One of the secrets of Karim Kanban’s unique musical power lies in the lyrics of his songs selected from renowned poets such as Ahmad Hardi, Abduallah Goran, and Sheiknouri Sheyoleslam. The poems are forged into aural and rhythmical harmony of sounds that come alive through cadence of his voice and reflexive moods and musings as if these poems were written originally to have been sung with Haiku like imagination and intricate musical modes and moods to bring out the emotional subtleties, scenes, and contemplations. In his everyday life, Karim Kaban was a popular and unpretentious artist. He breathed in the air of the streets, enjoyed the company of his town folk, frequented places where he would run into people whom he knew and did not know. Karim Kaban sang only a limited number of repertoires of songs; a total of 20 recorded songs and some maqams; all scrupulously selected and performed to be pure and penetrating throughout ages. His only prerequisite as he had pointed out emphatically in an interview was “the Kurdish character of the work”; that is why, his pensive songs continue to resonate in the memories and hearts of millions of people in different parts of Kurdistan. In the words of Kamaran Sobhan, an author and artist, Karim Kaban’s musical mystique is comparable to Said Ali Asgar Kurdestani. He describes Karim Kaban’s rich voice as one “imbued with basil and roses…[his] is the symbol of Kurdish voice in all four parts of Kurdistan and he has followers and fans in all four parts of Kurdistan.” Other singers have drawn inspiration from his powerful performances and have tried to emulate and reproduce some of his musical variations; however, they have not been able to do justice to the original work and its musical ambience” as Karim Kaban deploringly said in an interview without being humble about the perfectionist quality of his definitive work, “I am not satisfied with what they have done. They have not been able to capture the mood of the original; the voice is not right and they have misread the poems.” Both the old and new generations have found him inspirational in his most memorable and touching songs: xanabandan (henna ceremony), taman (age), yaran wasyatim (Friends, my Will), bedarani shaw (the sleepless), fermisk wa shehr (Tears and Verses) and yar e azizem “ (My darling). His work occupies a unique and ubiquitous place in the musical history of our nation. Music lovers and artists revered and admired him dearly. He received several well deserved awards and recognitions including the last one a month before his death when a group of artists from his hometown came together at his house; despite his old age and ailment, he was as usual impeccably dressed; he looked elated, gently smiling at and appreciatively singing along with his fans, one of his and their favorite songs; they offered him flowers and their gracious love and admiration for what he had done for them. The old singer looked content and proud that he had passed on his musical heritage and cultural identity to both the old and the new generation. Likewise during his funeral, the singer was remembered and celebrated with his immortal songs for his innovative, transformative, and legendary place in Kurdish musical history. Dr. Amir Sharifi, President of the Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles.
