Producer's Notes - Zaina the chill mix - CD Album

I have known Zade for nearly three years. Our relationship goes far beyond the simple equation of producer and artist. I consider us true friends. We have often worked at his family's home in Amman where you can look past the River Jordan and see the lights of Jerusalem at night. I've come to feel as if I am truly part of the Dirani family.

Zade is many things. We should begin the list with his serious academic study of Eastern and Western classical music for eight years at the National Music Conservatory in Amman. His mother Mimi tells me of the countless hours he has dedicated to practice; translating what his mind had learned into a language his fingers could understand. Music is empty, however, without heart and Zade manifests a maturity well beyond his years in composition uncanny in its' range of emotional depth. We have arrived at the place where all greatly talented young musicians meet and it is here that Zade departs from the already winnowed group. Following September 11, 2001, Zade has traveled back and forth across the United States playing house concerts wherever an audience will assemble.

No one on earth I know of is doing more on such a personal level to try to bridge the chasm of understanding and trust which opened in the seismic shift of that day. He has played in American homes, schools, churches and hospitals. He sometimes plays for 12 people in a living room and feels privileged to do so. This is from a young man who has also been honored to play for Queen Elizabeth in London and Nelson Mandela in Washington, DC. It is sometimes hard to remember that he has achieved all this in just 21 years. Only his fondness for Skittles serves to remind me.

Will Ackerman
Windham County, Vermont