Abdollah Davami (1891-1980) & Mohammad Reza Lotfi - Radif Avazi - The Vocal Repertoire

Here we present some recordings by the greatest master of Vocal Radif (Radif Avazi) of the past century. He recorded his complete Radif in the 1970s. It was published first in 1995 as a set of three cassettes and later as a set of three CDs, with the addition of his Tasnif recordings on 78 rpm records from the early part of last century. Only three of the Dastgahs have an accompaniment on Tar, played by Mohammad Reza Lotfi, one of his many students. The other Dastgahs were performed by Davami without any accompaniment. I had asked my friend KF many many years ago to put the three Dastgahs with Lotfi on a CD for me. Here the result, together with the covers created by KF, based on the cover of the original cassette box. Many thanks to him.

Ostad Abdollah Davami had many students, the most prominent being Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Mahmud Karimi, himself the great master of vocal Radif of the following generation. Karimi recorded his own version of the Radif, released by Mahoor as a set of five CDs, which he taught to many students, amongst them Parisa. We had posted an LP by Karimi in 2016. 

"The founder of Persian vocal radif repertoire and a very great master of tasnif and tonbak, Ostad Abdollah Davami, was born in Ta village of Tafresh city, Iran, in 1891. As a teenager he discovered that he had a good, audible and suitable voice, so he decided to learn the elementary principles of Persian vocal music. One day he had gone to a gathering in the house of Majd-al-Mamalek that he met Ali Khan Nayeb-al-Saltaneh. After that he became the student of Ali Khan Nayeb-al-Saltaneh for learning radif and Haji Khan, Agha Jan, Sama' Hozur (santoor player) for learning tasnif, and the art of tonbak playing. Because of his talent in learning music, he became friend of great masters of his time such as Mirza Hossein Gholi (tar player), Hossein Khan (kamancheh player), Darvish Khan (tar and setar player), Malek-al-Zakerin (vocalist) and Mirza Abdallah (setar player). He has trained many students. He passed away in 1980."

from: http://www.nasehpour.com/tonbak/ostad-abdollah-davami.html

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Rambod Sodeyf (رامبد صدیف) (born 1939) - Concert in Cologne on 3rd of April 1992 broadcast by WDR in 1992

Here the second recording by the great master of Avaz (see the preceding post).

Here the corrected files:

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Many thanks to KF for the recording and creating the covers.

Parisa & Ensemble Darvish - Bayat-e Tork - Copy of an Iranian Cassette from the 1970s

Parisa (or Parissa), born 1950, is one of the foremost female singers of Iran. She studied with the famous Radif master Mahmud Karimi (1927-1984) and with Ostad Dariush Safvat (born 1928). We present here a cassette we bought in the 1980s in an Iranian shop in London. This cassette has better sound quality than other edtions of the same recording circulating in the Iranian community, even better than the CD. This cassette, manufactured in England, contains the mode Bayat-e Tork recorded in Iran before the revolution. See more on the artist on her website: http://www.parissa.org/05_biography/biography.htm

The Ensemble Darvish was directed by Santoor player Reza Shafieian (born 1941). The Tar and Setar player might be Dariush Tala'i.

Bayat-e Tork (both sides joined into one track) (38:02)

1. Tasnif Mehrabani

2. Chaharmezrab Santoor

3. Avaz (singing) & Nay

4. Avaz & Tar (in reality Setar)

5. Avaz & Kemencheh

6. Tasnif Hamchu Farhad Shadeh

7. Chaharmezrab Nay

8. Zarbi Tork

9. Avaz & Tar

10. Tasnif

11. Zarbi Reng

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