Iskhak (Isoq or Isaac) Katayev (d. 2006) was a famous singer of the Shashmaqam of Bukhara. He belonged - as so many of the Shashmaqam singers - to the Jewish community and emigrated at the end of his life to the United States. Apparently he lived part of his life in Tajikistan.
In 2016 we had posted an Uzbek MP3-CD devoted to four Shashmaqam singers. Our singer here was one these four. See there for more information on the singer.
I saw him probably live as part of the Ilyas Malayev Ensemble at two concerts in Utrecht, Holland, at the Oude Music Festival, in the early or mid 1990s. I remember that at the day before they performed they were sitting right next to me in another concert. I was unable to figure out from which country they might come. And a big cloud of a strong fragrance sourronded them which I also couldn't figure out. Only a day later I learned that these were the musicians of the Uzbek Jewish Shashmaqam ensemble from Queens, N.Y. and that the fragrance came from smoking enormous amounts of cheap Russian cigarettes. This was quite an experience and so were also the two concerts: I never had heard Shashmaqam before and was very surprised at the sheer power and loudness of their voices. Very impressing. But I really fell strongly in love with this music only in 1998 at a tour of the Ari Babakhanov Ensemble through Holland and Belgium. With each concert my love for this music became stronger and after the last concert I was so sad that the tour was over.
Here the track info as found on https://records.su/album/21756:
Side 1:
1. Nasrulloi (klassicheskaya melodiya - Dzhazbi)
2. Savti kalon (klassicheskaya melodiya - Soib)
3. Vospominaniye (muzyka nar.- Nazim, Nakis)
Side 2:
4. Ushshoki Samarkand (muzyka nar.-- Zebuniso)
5. YA schastliv (muzyka nar.- Dzh. Kuvnakov)
6. Kashkarchai mugulchai dugokh (klassicheskaya melodiya - P. Khisori)
7. Talkini ushshok (klassicheskaya melodiya - Khusayni)
Iskhak Katayev - tanbur,
Gafur Razykov - dutar,
Mikhail Katayev - doyra (3, 4),
Ensemble of National Instruments (1, 2, 5-7)
Most of the songs belong to the repertoire of Shashmaqam.
