Member Since: 6/4/2006
Band Members: TABRIZ - The Dream Key to the Dream Lock of the Dream Door of the Dream Heart. The Pen. From Tabriz flows audacious aural vibrations, lightning strikes of lyricism, shamanistic polyrhythms, and eruptions of evolutionary thought - all to provoke seismic shifts in the present spiritual, mental, and cultural paradigms. Giving himself completely to this goal, the details of his life are irrevelant. He is a lightning rod struck by pure inspiration, The Pen in the Hands of a Higher Force and Power.
Tabriz is a musician, writer, poet, cutting-edge spiritual provocateur and a true renaissance man. Born to accomplished pianist and opera singer with his mother and classically trained guitarist in his father he showed a natural propensity for music and storytelling as an infant. His grandfather would buy little Tabriz plastic guitars which the young baby would joyfully play along to Soul Train, Midnight Special, American Bandstand or any other musical program. After a few minutes of rhythmic strumming he’d throw the guitar across the room, smash it and clap for himself! A natural born rock star. When he was able to talk he’d hold court with fantastic stories into the wee hours of the morning, which he’d continue night after night until the story was finished. Thus, was his destiny.
As a teenager in Kansas City, Missouri these passions converged in the context of a spiritual quest which has endured to this day. At fourteen became obsessed with spirituality and began with the Bible dedicating himself to plumb its depth and discovery the origin of the religion of Christianity and become a true follower of Jesus Christ.
Subsequently, his social conscious as a young black man was awakened through the late-night talk radio personality Bob Law local radio personality Lloyd Daniels and televised speeches of Minister Louis Farrakhan.
Musically, young Tabriz bought his first recording studio at sixteen and spent the remainder of his teenage years recording and playing with various bands around Kansas City. As a rapper he opened up for several major acts across the midwest including LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and Digital Underground. He also starred in the independent film, “Another Day Around the Wayâ€, and produced two songs to its soundtrack.
In his twenties he gave up music to pursue spirituality and community activism full time. He began his public speaking career volunteering at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary where he spoke alongside political prisoner Leonard Peltier. He spoke at numerous high schools, colleges, churches, and community rallies working with a diverse, multiethnic group of allies. He co-hosted the “Conscious Hour†on community radio in Kansas City interviewing activists, artists, and spiritual thinkers in addition to being a frequent guest on the television show, MO Newz. His community activism peaked as Kansas City‘s Head of the local organizing community of the historic Two Million Man March in 1995.
In 1996 he was introduced to the mystic poetry of the Sufi saint Rumi and began consciously walking the Sufi path of love as a dervish and was given the name Tabriz.
In the year 2000 he became a student of the modern sage Lex Hixon beginning an in depth study of Vajranaya Buddhism, Soto Zen, Vedantic Hinduism in addition to Islamic Sufism. He has being initiated as a dervish in both the Jerrahi and Naqshbandi orders of Sufism. Dedicated to finding common ground between sacred traditions Tabriz has also participated in sweat lodge ceremonies of the Hopi and Lakota tribes and is planning to meet with the shamans of Peru.
In recent years, he was worked with Errol Lewis, a master hypnotherapist. Mr. Lewis’ life experiences served as inspiration for Tabriz first novel, The Elixir of Ponyo.
In the ancient tradition of the griot, a presentation by Tabriz, deftly weaves poetry, music, spoken word, and passionate discourse into a beautiful and also provocative tapestry. Some current topics include: Rumi and the Sufi Path of Love, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Black Culture: The Messianic Muse, A New Definition of Manhood, The Science of Universal Awe: The Essence of All Faiths, and Indigenous Spirituality and Sacred Sexuality.
Influences: "Every thought and imagination of a mystic has an effect. When he thinks of something, it may materialize the week after, or the next month, or perhaps after many years, but all that a mystic says or thinks is fulfilled sooner or later." -Hazrat Khan
Sounds Like: My perfect song would sound like a billion pearls exploding from the marrow of my bones into the cocoon of the warmthest caring crucible; like tasting the tonuge of the beloved or the sun kissing melanin. My perfect song would sound like the righteous indignation of a terrorist, like the piss of poverty or rawhide engraving the skin of my great, great, grandmother. My perfect song vibrates hurricanes inside you like the dawning orgasm of the most beautiful bride, rising to crescendo slow, infinitely oceanic in expansion, indelibly etched into the essence of the akashic. My perfect song sounds exactly like the absence of rape, violence and hatred or maybe something like forgiveness. My perfect song’s swimming the ether like the ultra-creamy cerebreal climax of pure cocaine, like dizzy euphoria, like bilocation or spirit’s freedom from flesh. My perfect song marks and suspends time the day two million black men stood together in peace for fourteen hours on the same soil our fathers were sold - opening the portal and signing the contract for future/love/paradise. Yes, my perfect song sounds just like a star dying across the horizon, like photosynthesis, like a flower purring forth its perfume. Come to think of it, my perfect song sounds exactly like an 80-year old man being called boy, like activator activating a petrified jheri-curl forest atop my 16-year old head or FICA jacking taxes out my little ass check every 2 weeks for the rest of my fucking life. My perfect song would chant you into a dervish whirling, like maple surging joyfully through a grateful tree, like dolphins dancing the oceans’ depths to kiss the sky or like, the extraterrestrial nature of incarnation. My perfect song would sound like my own death rattle, like my grandfather being buried alive or specifically like the sound of his 32-20 cracking a cracker’s cranium 10 hours before. My perfect song would express the eternal vulnerablility of every vagina and the miracle of motherhood. My perfect song would sound just like my own footsteps walking water, like the matyrdom of my own ego, like the resurrection of own self. My perfect song sees the state of the world and contemplates it with Wisdom. Therefore my perfect song sees the world without dreams, without night, without day, without happiness or sadness, without selfishness, without pride, without hunger, without old age, without disease, without birth, or death, beginning or end, without anger, without intoxicants, without lust, without theft, without lies, without arrogance, without ignorance, without karma, without illusion, without hurry, without race, without religion, without blood ties, without mantras, without miracles, without titles, without fame. My perfect song is, was, and always will be perfect. But not a song without a singer or a listener to hear my perfect song.
Type of Label: Indie