Ostad Bahari (Ali Asghar Bahari) - Kamancheh - Cassette released in the US in 1987

Here we present a cassette by the great Kemencheh (Kamancheh) master Ostad Ali Asghar Bahari (1905-1995). Though he cooperated with many of the so-called radio artists, also called Motrebi (entertainers), his playing always remained very authentic and very much his own. Later in his life he joined the Center for the Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Traditional Music and taught many students. Since the 1940s the violin had replaced the Kemencheh in classical Iranian music. It was Ali Asghar Bahari who was practically the only arist who held onto the Kemencheh and revived the instrument in the end. Nowadays violin has completely disappeared in classical Iranian music and the Kemencheh is widely played again, due to our artists influence.

He is very beloved in Iran and there are many CDs by him available there. This cassette probably was first published in Iran.

Here he plays on side 1: Dastgah-e Shur and on side 2: Avaz-e Dashti and Avaz-e Afshari, both derived from Dastgah-e Shur.

Last month we posted an LP on which he performed.

On the artist see:

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahari

http://www.iranchamber.com/music/abahari/aliasghar_bahari.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali-Asghar_Bahari

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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.

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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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