Afghanistan - A Musical Anthology of the Orient 3 - Unesco Collection - LP released in Germany in the early 1960s

Here we post an early LP devoted to the music of Afghanistan. This is perhaps the most beautiful anthology of Afghan music ever published, because of its musical quality and the variety it offers.

It was one of the few LPs which were republished on CD by Rounder Records in 2003, in a project to republish the complete Unesco Series, published originally by Bärenreiter in Germany as LPs. Unfortunately, this project was abandoned already after a few CD releases, probably because it did not pay off financially. This CD is no longer available for many years.

One should not take the comments of Alain Daniélou too seriously: they seem a bit too farfetched at times.

We scanned here only the English part of the comments.
This is the first of a series of about ten posts on Afghani music, insha'Allah. At the end of this series we will provide, with some posts by Ustad Sarahang, a bridge to the Raga music of Pakistan and India.

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In the order of the tracks is a mistake: track 11 in the download is track 12 of the LP and track 12 is track 11. Sorry.

Edalat (Adalat) Nasibov - Ashiq from Azerbaijan - A private cassette from a private concert

Before proceeding to Afghanistan on our journey towards Pakistan and India, we post one more cassette by Edalat Nasibov, the brilliant Ashiq from Azerbaijan. I just discovered it a couple of days ago in my collection. So in order to complete our posts on Edalat Nasibov here it is. 

I vaguely remember that I received this cassette in the early 1990s from an Iranian musician and owner of a gallery for old nomadic carpets in Cologne, Germany. 

My friend KF made many years ago a CD out of this cassette and created nice covers. 

Many thanks to both.

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Musiqi-e Milal-e Musalman - Music of the Islamic People: India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan - A box of six cassettes released in Iran in 1996

On the 9th of August 2018 we posted two cassettes out of this box. Now we have the complete box again and decided, to post it. The post of 9th of August we have deleted.

This box was published by the same organization as the series of 18 albums "Local Iranian Music", each containing six cassettes, from which we posted up to now only the volume on Baluchestan. We plan to post in the future some of the volumes on Khorasan.

The box consists of these volumes:

Vol. 1: Ustad Bismillah Khan - India

Vol. 2: Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Pakistan

Vol. 3: Adina Hashemov - Tajikistan

Vol. 4 & 5: Davlatmand Kholov - Tajikistan

Vol. 6: Alim Qasimov - Azerbaijan

There is a booklet with the set, but unfortunately only in Farsi.

Vol. 1: Ustad Bismillah Khan - India

Bismillah Khan needs no introductions as he is one of the most popular classical Indian musicians with a very long carrier and countless LP and CD releases.

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Vol. 2: Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Pakistan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also doesn't need any introduction being worldwide the most widely known traditional artist from the Orient and Asia. There are around 200 CD releases by him.

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Vol. 3: Adina Hashemov - Tajikistan

Adina Hashemov is in the west hardly known at all, but in Tajikistan he is one the most popular folk music singers. The only release in the west is to my knowledge a 21 minutes long track on a CD published by the Belgian label Fonti Musicali: Tadjikistan - Musiques Populaires du Sud (1991).

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Vol. 4: Davlatmand Kholov - Tajikistan (1)

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Vol. 5: Davlatmand Kholov - Tajikistan (2)

Davlatmand Kholov is a well known and in Tajikistan very popular artist, who created a new national, so called "classical" music, based on the music of Badakhshan. His goal was to replace the real classical music which is the Shashmaqam and the Maqam of the Ferghana Valley and which are in Tajikistan the same as the ones performed in Uzbekistan, the only difference being that in Tajikistan the poems are in Tajik (Persian). But Davlatmands music is still folk music and can't compare with the real classical Maqam music in its refinement and greatness. See our many posts on Shashmaqam and the Maqam tradition of the Ferghana Valley.  

There are three CDs by Davlatmand, one by the French label Inedit, another, more recent one by the Russian label Long Arms Records and a double CD on the Iranian label Barbat, performing together with some Iranian musicians.

For more information on the artist, see the booklet to the CD published in France.

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Vol. 6:Alim Qasimov - Azerbaijan

Alim Qasimov again is a widely known traditional artist who toured a lot in the west and has quite a number of CD releases published in France, Germany and the US. He is considered one of the greatest voices in the world. We had only few posts with him up to now. Here he is accompanied by Malik Mansurov on Tar and Elshan Mansurov on Kemenche.

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Cassettes 3 to 5 were digitized by our friend KF years ago. That is the reason why these cassettes have track divisions. Many thanks to KF.

Dariush Tala'i (Setar) - The Instrumental Radif of Persian Music - Radif of Mirza Abdollah - A box of six cassettes, released in Iran in mid 1990s

Before we proceed on our journey further towards Afghanistan and India, we return back to Iran for another unexpected post by Dariush Tala'i. We received this box recently as a gift from a very dear Iranian friend, Mohsen. Many many thanks to him.

This Radif was recorded in 1992 at the University of Washington, School of Music, Seattle. It was first published in 1994 on 5 CDs by the French label Al Sur. These CDs are no longer available for many years. The Iranian edition on six cassettes was probably published shortly after the French edition. It is also no longer available for quite some time and never has been released on CD in Iran.

Mirza Abdollah (1843-1918), whose Radif is performed here, was one of the most important musicians in the recent history of classical Iranian music. His father Ali Akbar Farahani was the one who collected all the remaining parts of the old classical music and organized them into a Radif. His two sons, Mirza Abdollah and Mirza Hossein Qoli (Agha Hossein Gholi) (1853-1916) transmitted two different versions of this Radif to many students. These two Radifs are the basis of most classical Iranian music since then. 

Ali Akbar Farahani 

Mirza Abdollah

Aqa Hossein Qoli

Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi

Dariush Tala'i himself is a student of Agha Hossein Gholi's son, Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi (1897-1985), who was considered the greatest Tar player of his generation. Ali Akbar Shahnazi transmitted the Radif of his father to many excellent students. He also created his own Radif, which he also transmitted. 

But Dariush Tala'i learned also the Radif of Mirza Abdollah, which is the most widely known and used Radif, probably from another of his masters, Nur Ali Borumand (1905-1977), who was the main transmitter of this Radif to later generations. In the booklet to the French edition of this Radif Dariush Tala'i thanks all his masters. Next to the two already mentioned, these are Abdollah Davami, Yusuf Forutan and Said Hormozi. By three of these masters we recently posted recordings.

The Radifs by Mirza Abdollah, Aqa Hossein Qoli (another transcription of his name) and Ali Akbar Shahnazi are all available on CDs and also as books, with complete scores of the Radifs, from the Iranian label and publishing house Mahoor.

Volume 1:

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Volume 2:

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Volume 3:

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Volume 4:

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Volume 5:

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Volume 6:

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Unfortunately on side 1 of cassette 6 something went wrong. We have replaced the faulty file now by a correct one. Sorry for the inconveniance.

People's Melodies of Turkmenistan - LP released in Soviet Turkmenistan in 1979

Here our third LP from Turkmenistan from the collection of Werner Durand. Side 1 has Bakhshi music by N. Gulov, accompanied by Dotar and Gidjak, and the first two tracks on side 2 are also Bakhshi music by N. Gulov and B. Berdyyev, again accompanied by Dotar and Gidjak. Here we have again two extracts from Dastans in tracks 1 and 7. Tracks 8 to 11 are folk songs performed a cappella.

According to https://records.su/album/18738 the details are:

Side 1:

N. Gulov (1—5):

1. Diygey sen (muz. nar. — sl. iz eposa «Ger-ogly»)

2. Soz bilyani (muz. nar. — Bayli shakhir)

3. Byari gel, byari

4. Yandyrdyn, Bibi (muz. nar. — Changli shakhir)

5. Aya dondi (muz. nar. — Makhtumkuli)

Side 2:

N. Gulov & B. Berdyyev (6, 7):

6. Yarymdan, Bibi (muz. nar. — D. Balkizil)

7. Sonam geldimi (muz. nar. — sl. iz dastana «Nedzhep-oglan»)

O. Durdyyeva (8—10):

8. Lyale

9. Khuvdi

10. Khovlim

A. Kurbanov, G. Melyayev (11):

11. Kushtdendi (nar. pesni). 

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Many thanks to Werner for his generous sharing.

In the future we will post more Turkmen LPs, inshaAllah.