Ardeshir Farah

Guitarists Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah have been performing together for 12 years and have been leading a five-piece band for several years. But lately they've taken up residence near the summit of the world-beat market with their second hit album in a row. "Americas," an exotic, ear-pleasing collection released in May on Mesa Records, has been in the Top 5 of the Billboard magazine World Beat charts for 20 weeks and has a chance of eclipsing sales of the duo's 1991 "Primal Magic" album.

Guitarists Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah have been performing together for 12 years and have been leading a five-piece band for several years. But lately they've taken up residence near the summit of the world-beat market with their second hit album in a row. "Americas," an exotic, ear-pleasing collection released in May on Mesa Records, has been in the Top 5 of the Billboard magazine World Beat charts for 20 weeks and has a chance of eclipsing sales of the duo's 1991 "Primal Magic" album.

The rule of thumb for benefit concerts is for musical groups to keep it simple, stick with their hits and smile a lot. The result is usually an evening of music safely within the taste restrictions of moneyed audiences. Saturday night's Wiltern Theatre performance featuring the Manhattan Transfer fund-raising effort for the Mountains Trust Benefit (to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains) was, for the most part, a welcome exception. The group's members--Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, Tim Cheryl Bentyne--performed individually and collectively throughout a program that managed to mix predictably frothy jazz and easy pop with some highly adventurous playing by the lesser-known artists on the bill.

The rule of thumb for benefit concerts is for musical groups to keep it simple, stick with their hits and smile a lot. The result is usually an evening of music safely within the taste restrictions of moneyed audiences. Saturday night's Wiltern Theatre performance featuring the Manhattan Transfer fund-raising effort for the Mountains Trust Benefit (to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains) was, for the most part, a welcome exception. The group's members--Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, Tim Cheryl Bentyne--performed individually and collectively throughout a program that managed to mix predictably frothy jazz and easy pop with some highly adventurous playing by the lesser-known artists on the bill.

Listening to Strunz & Farah at the Conga Room Wednesday, one kept wondering what would happen if either of the two virtuosic guitarists ever slammed a refrigerator door on a finger. Because speed and dexterity are what the veteran duo is all about. Costa Rica-born Jorge Strunz and Iranian Ardeshir Farah have worked as a team since 1980.

When it comes to acoustic guitars attacked with gusto and exoticism, Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah are at the head of their class. The pair will cook up cross-cultural musical ideas and brandish their dazzling guitar technique when they hit the Ventura Theatre on Friday. Strunz began his career as the founder of the jazz-Latin fusion group Caldera in the '70s. Born in Iran, Farah came to Los Angeles, where he met Strunz in 1979. A duo was born.

The Carlos Almaraz Memorial Concert and Tribute at the Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center Saturday will feature acoustic guitar virtuosos Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah. The duo--whose latest album "Primal Magic" recently topped record charts--performs rhythms ranging from rumbas to African, Caribbean and Middle Eastern sounds. "They're not at the top for nothing," event coordinator Michael Mora said. "We're all in for a real treat." Strunz and Farah will be accompanied by a six-member band.

Stop the presses. There may yet be hope for mankind: Representatives of six nations from four continents found common ground Saturday at the Coach House in a harmonious demonstration of cooperation toward a common goal. The group, assembled under the leadership of guitarists Jorge Strunz (from Costa Rica) and Ardeshir Farah (from Iran), pooled skills in a display of empathy that would bring shame to larger, better-known international organizations devoted to world unity.

Wednesday night's performance at the Wiltern was a textbook example of pop music as a cultural melting pot. Start with headliners Toure Kunda, the Paris-based African pop group founded by three half-brothers from Senegal and rounded out by French, African and West Indian musicians.

The proof that scores of jazz musicians can indeed stand the heat in the kitchen--as well as on the bandstand--can be found in "Jazz Cooks: Portraits and Recipes of the Greats," a new cookbook written by Bob Young and Al Stankus. The 200-plus-page volume, published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang ($24.95), includes more than 100 culinary specialties (and oddities) from such jazz notables as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, Ray Brown, Shirley Horn and many more.

A new multiculturalism has surfaced in what's loosely been called Latin jazz. Musicians from across the Americas and the world have come together to transcend stylistic and political boundaries and to develop new musical hybrids, sounds that borrow from a number of cultures and genres including jazz and fusion. The bands of saxophonist Justo Almario, percussionist Alex Acun and bassist Abraham Laboriel all fall into this category.

Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah represent the sound of two acoustic guitars operating in high gear. They dish out sensuous melodicism and knuckle-busting guitar technique over pulsating Latin rhythms, much to the delight of a growing audience. But this is no overnight-sensation story. Strunz hails originally from Costa Rica, and Farah from Iran, and they met on the neutral turf of Los Angeles nearly 15 years ago.