Ustad Mohammad Omar - Rubab Master from Afghanistan - Recordings from the archives of WDR

Here we present a number of beautiful recordings of the great Master of the Afghan Rubab, Ustad Mohammad Omar. I received these recordings from my friend KF. Originally these recordings are from the archives of WDR in Cologne, Germany. They seem to be from two different recording sessions: the first three tracks from one session and the rest from a second session.

Here again KF wrote notes about the recordings:

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Many thanks to KF.

Ustad Mohammad Omar (1905–1980) - Rubab - Cassette from Afghanistan

Here we present an Afghani cassette by the great Rubab master Ustad Mohammad Omar, which we recently received from our very generous friend KF as a gift. This cassette served as the basis for the CD "Ustad Mohammad Omar ‎- Robab - The Soul of Sound", released in Germany in the 1990s and rereleased in 2009. But it is not completely identical: the order of the pieces is different and it seems that for the CD some parts were cut out, probably because of imperfections in the recordings. 

The cassette is not well edited, e.g. the first and the last track seem to be two different sections of the same recording, partly overlapping, and often there are some harsh noises between the tracks. These we cut out. At the end of side 1 there are two very short, partly distorted pieces which seem to be fragments of other tracks. These we also cut out. The cassette is still about five minutes longer than the CD.

Ustad Mohammad Omar was presented on many LPs of Afghani music released in the West in the 1960s and 1970s, as he was considered one of the most prominent Afghani musicians and the Rubab was considered a national emblem of the country.

There are only two CDs on the market: the one mentioned above and the one released by Folkways. The second one is not that typical. Better are his recordings done in Afghanistan. Next we will post some beautiful recordings from the archives of WDR.

Here he is accompanied by two excellent percussionists: Ghul Alam on Dhol and the legendary Malang (Najrabi) on Zerbaghali. By both one can find music on YouTube. In some tracks there is also an excellent Tambur (long-necked lute) player. His name is unfortunately not mentioned. Perhaps it is Abdul Majid who was present on several LPs published in the West.

On the artist see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Omar_(musician)

https://folkways.si.edu/ustad-mohammad-omar-master-afghan-classical/central-asia-world/music/article/smithsonian

You can also download the booklet to his Folkways CD:

https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40439.pdf

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Essa Kassemi - Singing and Rubab Playing from Afghanistan - A WDR radio program broadcast on 31st of August 1983

Here we post a radio program on music from Afghanistan broadcast by WDR (Western German Radio) in Cologne on 31st of August 1983s. I received this recently from my friend KF. He made notes on the pieces performed. See below two pages from his notebook.

Essa Kassemi (Isa Khasemi) was and is quite well known through his French LP which was widely present in the record shops back then and which we posted a couple of days ago. He lives in Cologne since several decades. On the back cover of his LP this information is given: 

"Ustad Essa Kassimi, classical singer and master of the short-necked lute or Robab, born in Kabul in 1932, comes from a famous family of traditional musicians. On the maternal side, his grandfather Ustad Mohammad Kassem (Ustad Qasim (1882-1955)), formerly among the most important musicians of the Royal Court, is considered today as the founder of the classical Afghan musical art. It is he who teaches Essa Kassimi the techniques of singing, Tabla, Robab. From his father, Aga Mohammad, famous classical singer, Essa Kassimi learns the mastery of the instruments Dilruba, Sarangi, Harmonium and Robab." 

Otherwise not much is known about him. I remember that I saw in the 1970s a small poster announcing a concert by him in Düsseldorf. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the concert, which I still regret.

The Program consists of three pieces:

1. Raga Kausiya - Rubab

2. Ghazal in Raga Bhairavi

3. Raga Iman (Yaman) Kalyan - Rubab

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Many thanks to KF for sharing so generously.

Essa Kassimi - Le Luth Afghan - LP released in France in 1979

Now we start a small series of Rubab recordings. First a French LP which was widely present in the record shops back then. The artist lives in Cologne, Germany.

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Zaman Shawqi - Cassette from Afghanistan

Here another beautiful cassette of folk music from Afghanistan. 

In 2011 we had already posted another cassette by the artist.

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Haj Saifuddin - Logari Music - Cassette from Afghanistan

Here a beautiful cassette by a singer who was very popular in Afghanistan.

See on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saifo

These singers used to always accompany themselves on the Tambur, a long-necked lute. Unfortunately now most play the Harmonium. 

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Hamidullah Charikari - Afghan Music - Cassette from Afghanistan

Cover of the original cassette.

Here another beautiful cassette by Hamidullah Charikari. This is the fourth one we post. Our friend KF made years ago a CD with nice covers out of the cassette. Many thanks to him.
At the beginning and at the end of the cassette the music is for about one or two minutes slightly distorted.

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Ismail and Hamidullah - Folk Music from Afghanistan - From an Afghani Cassette

Cover of the original cassette.

Here another very beautiful cassette from pre-Taliban times by the great Hamidullah Charikari together with his older brother Ismail. I'm not sure if they are really brothers or just come both from Chakri near Kabul. We posted in 2011 already two cassettes by Hamidullah, together with the great Bilton.

I still don't know if it is proper to name this music Logari Music. In 2013 we posted a cassette by Ustad Doray Logari, who is said to have brought Logari music to Kabul and was recorded a lot by the radio back then. This is the way, one says, how Logari music became popular over all of Afghanistan. He was called the father of Logari music. It is also said that Ustad Doray Logari was the main teacher of Bilton, the most famous singer of this tradition, though there exists also the information that his teacher was Salam Logari, the son of Ustad Doray Logari. But as they are both more or less of the same age, or Bilton is even older than Salam Logari, as I think, I doubt this. Bilton was raised and spend most of his life in the Logar Valley. The music of the two singers here is definitely of the same tradtion, though these two musicians are not from Logar. It could be that the music which Ustad Doray brought to Kabul had such an effect that a new, quite sophisticated Afghan folk music evolved out of it. There are many other singers widely known in Afghanistan who sing and play a similar music, like Zaman Shawqi, Haji Saifuddin (whose music is clearly named "Logari music") and younger ones like Faiz Karizi (born 1953). If anybody can help to clarify this subject, it would be very appreciated. What I found in the literature - I must confess that I have only very few books on Afghan music - doesn't really answer my questions. As so often, what is described in the books and what one can hear in recordings doesn't fit always together. 

Anyway, this is a very fine and very fascinating folk music tradition performed by excellent professional musicians and it was and still seems to be today very popular in Afghanistan and the Afghan community in the West. Though in Afghanistan and in the West traditional Afghan music seems to be completly neglected nowadays as far as available recordings are concerned. When I started to look for Afghan recordings (CDs and cassettes) in the Afghan shops in Germany, especially in Hamburg, there were still a lot of recordings of traditional music available. That was in the 1980s and early and mid 1990s. But already about 10 years later this music had vanished completely from the shelfs of the shops.

In the West never a CD was published by a Western label by any of these singers and musicians. I think this is one of the big missed chances. Now it is too late for well-known reasons. In a recording done in the West one could have insisted on leaving out the Harmonium, about which the Afghan music specialist John Baily already complained several times. Then one would have had a beautiful recording of good singing with an ensemble of Rabab, Tambur, Sarinda and Dhol. The interaction between the musicians is always fascinating.

Our friend KF made years ago a CD out of this cassette and created the covers. Many thanks to him.

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Afghanistan - Music from Kabul - LP released in the US in 1973

Here another Afghanistan LP contributed by our friend Werner Durand: this time music from Kabul with some very beautiful instrumental pieces and some with vocals. Many thanks to Werner.

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Folk Music of Afghanistan - Vol. 2 - LP released in the US in the early 1970s

Here Vol. 2, also a contribution by our friend Werner Durand. Many thanks to him. It contains more fieldrecordings of authentic folk music (Mahali) of different regions of Afghanistan. It leaves out the urban music of Kabul.

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Folk Music of Afghanistan - Vol. 1 - LP released in the US in 1971

This LP is a contribution by our friend Werner Durand. Many thanks to him. It contains fieldrecordings of authentic folk music (Mahali) of different regions of Afghanistan. It leaves out the urban music of Kabul.

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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.