Showing posts with label Tar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tar. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 July 2018

Dariush Tala'i & Djamchid Chemirani - Le Son direct du Concert IRAN du 11 mai 1982 sur France Musique - Set of two cassettes first published in France in 1983. Re-edition from 1988


Just received two days ago from my very dear friend Werner Durand a rip of this rare set of two cassettes. I had completely forgotten, that it existed. I had it in my hands in a private house in Paris in the 1980s, but had no chance to copy it then. Many many thanks to Werner Durand for his very generous sharing.



Monday, 2 July 2018

Daryoush Tala'i - Le Tar - Tradition classique de l'Iran - LP released in France in 1980


After the wonderful LP by Dariush Tala'i on Ocora now the one on Harmonia Mundi released one year later. Here his name is transcibed as Daryoush Tala'i. With accompanyment by the great Zarb (Tonbak or Tombak) master Djamchid Chemirani. Again an absolutely fantastic recording of authentic Iranian classical music by a great artist. Wonderful.






Unfortunately there was something wrong with the beginning of side 1. We now corrected this. Sorry for the inconveniance.

flac
mp3

Friday, 8 June 2018

Iran Vol. 1 - Anthologie de la musique traditionnelle - Dariush Tala'i - Setar & Tar - LP published in France in 1979


We will post now the first two volumes of this excellent series. In 2016 we posted already volume 3 & 4 of this series. See here
When this LP came out in 1979 I bought it immediately. It was for me one of the biggest openings in the domain of tradtional Oriental music I ever had. Before there were already a number of LPs of classical Persian music on the market, but the musicians on these were all from the generation of the so-called Radio musicians. Their aim was to please and entertain a huge public and often was quite sentimental. Their version of the classical Dastgah music lacked most times the depth and the refinement and the amazing inner archtitecture of that music, next to classical North Indian music perhaps the most refined musical tradition of the Orient. 
There was only one exception: on the LP Iran I - A Musical Anthology of the Orient - 4 released by the German label Bärenreiter in the early 1960s there were two long pieces by an excellent singer, on one side accompanied by his master Nur Ali Borumand. I remember well how fascinated I was by this singer and especially the extremely fluid and dense Tar playing of Nur Ali Borumand which was so different from everything else I had heard. By the way, he was one of the teachers of the artist we have here. We hope to be able to post this LP soon.
With this Anthology all of a sudden one was introduced to a completely different calibre of musicians, all students of the last great Radif masters. These Radif masters were completely unknown by the big public and they hardly ever were recorded, except for educational reasons. Nothing was published on LP or otherwise. Only long after their passing away, starting in the 1980s and the 1990s, an Iranian label, Mahoor, published step by step first on cassette and then on CD many recordings by these masters, from private collections or those of institutions. These masters included Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Sa'id Hormozi, Yusef Forutan, Nur Ali Borumand, Musa Mar'ufi, Adib Khansari, Abdollah Davami and some others. Also to this generation belongs the outstanding Abolhasan Saba (1902-1957), who was well-known by the general public as a violin player. But no one except some close musician friends knew that he was also the greatest Setar player of his generation, which he never played in public. Only when in the 1990s some CDs of his Setar playing were published music lovers became aware of his genius.
The last great Radif masters were/are Dariush Safvat, an outstanding Setar and Santur player and a student of Saba, and Hatam Askari (Asgari) Farahani (born 1933), the master of an amazing vocal Radif. In 2011 we posted a set of four cassettes of a short version of his Radif, accompanied on Setar by Dariush Safvat. See here

So when this first LP and the following volumes were released one had for the first time (with the exception mentioned above) the chance to hear the real Dastgah music, in its depth and refinement worlds away from what one was able to listen to before. These LPs were for years amongst my most favourite LPs and I listened to them hundreds and hundreds of times. This music has a depth and inner architecture or inner logic one hardly ever is able to fully grasp. This makes this music forever satisfying because there is always still something which one has not yet reached and which draws one deeper into this music. Todays musicians, with 2 or 3 exceptions next to the two artists we post here, are not really aware of the great heritage they have and don't dive deep into this shoreless ocean to explore it and come up with some never before heard jewels from its depths. They rather opt to create some compositions or do some improviations which the big public likes. One of these 2 or 3 exceptions, a wonderful musician, told once my Iranian friend, that before he starts to play he imagines all his teachers sitting in a half circle in front of him and only when he feels their presence he starts to play. This way he approaches the music with the utmost respect and performs in the spirit of the great tradition he had received from his masters. One feels with all the other well-known musicians that they don't do that and the result is a lack of respect for the tradtion and this makes their music in one way or the other trivial, unfortunately. They always opt for the fast success and not for the hard, but extremely rewarding work. Part of these remarks are, by the way, also true for every great tradition of the Orient, especially Raga music.
The producer of these LPs was the legendary musicologist Jean During, who introduced the west to many great musical traditions of Iran, Azerbaidjan, Central Asia and Baluchistan, by producing LPs and CDs, writing books and bringing these musicians for concerts to Europe.
He wrote a couple of years ago a wonderful book, one of the most excellent books on music I ever read: Musiques d'Iran - La tradition en question. In this book he shows in depth the different levels of Iranian Dastgah music and explains in a way never formulated before the nature of the Radif. This book was another big opening for me, as it formulated things I always felt more or less vaguely, but was unable to formulate..

The artists on these LPs continue the tradition of the great masters mentioned above. Dariush Tala'i became quite known through this LP and later his tours in Europe and other releases. I had the chance to see some of his concerts in Holland in the 1990s.






Saturday, 16 July 2016

Bahram Mansurov (1911-1985) - Tar - Azerbaijanian Mugams - LP published in Soviet Azerbaijan in 1974


Here we present another LP by the great Tar player Bahram Mansurov of whom we posted already two other LPs: see here and here. This LP here has partly the same tracks as the one published by Unesco. Apparently they took the recordings from existing Melodiya LPs. On this LP here the tracks on side 1 are identical with the tracks 5, 6 & 1 on the Unesco LP and tracks 1 & 3 on side 2 with tracks 7 & 3 on the Unesco LP. Only tracks 3 & 4 are new. Bahram Mansurov was also present on the two previous posts of Azerbaijanian Mugam.

Side 1:
1. Mahur Hindi
2. Bayati Kord
3. Bayati Isfahan


Side 2:
1. Chahargah
2. Shushtar
3. Neva-Nishapur
4. Choban Bayati




A couple of years ago a LP by Bahram Mansurov from 1959 was republished on CD in Iran by an association of record collectors:


Bahram Mansourov (1911-1985) (Tar) – Tar Solo - Tar solo recorded on 33 RPM in 1959: Mahur-e-Hendi (8:58), Segah (5:20), Shahnaz (7:22), Bayat-e-Shiraz (10:17), Rast (12:56), Awaye-Mehrabani Institute of Culture & Art – Music in Iran cultural area (9) - Azeri music 4, AWA 070
The CD can be ordered at: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com

Monday, 1 October 2012

Bahram Mansurov (1911-1985) - Azerbaijani Mugam - Unesco Collection - Musical Sources - LP published in 1975


Another wonderful LP by the great master of Azerbaijani Tar, the only one published in Europe. Later republished on CD as part of the Unesco Collection from Auvidis/Naive, but no longer available for many many years. As accompanist you can hear him here.

Side 1:
1. Mugam Bayati-Isfahan (5:31)
2. Mugam Humayun (8:32)
3. Mugam Nivanishapur (4:58)
4. Mugam Shur (9:08)


Side 2:
1. Mugam Mahur-Hindi (11:58)
2. Mugam Bayati-Kurd (6:49)
3. Mugam Chahargah (9:04)



Friday, 14 September 2012

Bahram Mansurov (1911-1985) - Tar - LP Melodiya M 30 47333 001 (1986/88)


Beautiful recordings by the last great traditional master of the Tar in Azerbaijan.
See for more information on him:

Side 1:
1. Shushtar (7:33)
2. Rahab (7:21)
3. Homayun (4:34)


Side 2:
1. Khojaste (5:08)
2. Zabol (9:19)
3. Vilayati-Dilkash (6:02)



Saturday, 2 June 2012

Komiljon Otaniyozov (1917-1975) sings - Legendary singer from Khorezm, Uzbekistan - Vol. 2 - LP Melodiya M30-39685-86


Side 1:
1. Feruz (8:12)
2. Netay (3:32)
3. Talqini navo (Folk song from Khorezm) (5:23)
4. Salom hind xalqiga (3:40)

K. Otaniyozov, tar and voice
Folk instruments trio (1)
A. Akbarov, doira (1)


Side 2:
1. To’y keldi xorazmga (5:23)
2. Xush endi (3:58)
3. Muhammasi baxshi (4:40)
4. Xush keldingiz (Folk song from Khorezm) (2:40)
5. Sayyodxon (3:43)

K. Otaniyozov, tar and voice
I. Abdullaev, doira (1)
A. Akbarov, doira (2, 4)
B. Otajonov, doira (3, 5)




Apparently there is also a volume 3. Unfortunately we don't have that one.

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Komiljon Otaniyozov (1917-1975) sings - Legendary singer from Khorezm, Uzbekistan - Vol. 1 - LP Melodiya M30-39683-84


Komiljon Otaniyozov sings

Side 1:
1. Vatan (2:36)
2. Muborak (3:11)
3. Ne tilar mendan? (4:32)
4. Suvora VI (7:53)

K. Otaniyozov - tar and voice
I. Abdullaev - doira


Side 2:
1. Chorgoh (6:58)
2. Sanamning (4:31)
3. Ayrulmasin nigoridan (4:39)

K. Otaniyozov - tar and voice
Folk instruments trio (1)
B. Otajonov - doira (2, 3)




His name is sometimes written as Kamiljon Ataniyazov.
Thanks to Zhuzhu for the transcriptions from Russian.