Chemirani & Reto Weber – Rhythm as a Universal Language

When two musicians meet who understand rhythm not as accompaniment but as a language, something timeless emerges. So it was with Djamchid Chemirani and Reto Weber—two masters of percussion, two cultures that came together in a shared pulse. Chemirani, the Persian zarb virtuoso, brought to Weber’s Percussion Orchestra a depth and meditative power rooted in the Iranian musical tradition.

Weber, a Swiss percussionist with an open ear for sounds from around the world, created a space in which this art encountered African, Indian, and European rhythms. Since the late 1970s, Djamchid Chemirani had been one of the ensemble’s defining members. Together with Reto Weber, Famoudou Konaté, Muthuswamy Balasubramoniam, and others, he combined the freedom of improvisation with rhythmic patterns thousands of years old. Their concerts—at Jazzfest Berlin or in Montreux, for example—became dialogues between continents: not an exotic crossover, but a genuine encounter.

Chemirani brought a voice to the Western jazz world that was both calm and powerful. His zarb told stories of the desert and of silence—and found a natural resonance in Weber’s ensemble. “We don’t play pieces—we talk to one another.” — Reto Weber on working with Djamchid Chemirani. Today, their music remains a testament to the possibility of understanding without words—in the shared breath of rhythm.