Tanburi Abdi Coşkun - Tanbur Taksimleri - Cassette released in Turkey in the 1980s or 1990s

Here we present excellent recordings by the great Tanbur player Abdi Coşkun. Unfortunately one doesn't find much information on him in the internet except that he was born in 1941 and that he was a student of the great Tanbur master Necdet Yaşar, himself a student Mesut Cemil Bey, the son of Tanburi Cemil Bey. In the booklet to the CD "Turquie - L'art du tanbur ottoman" (VDE-586), which is devoted to the plucked Tanbur, played by Abdi Coşkun, and the bowed Tanbur, played by Fahreddin Çimenli, the author Kudsi Erguner writes that Abdi Coşkun "has distinguished himself by his noble and creative style situated halfway between that of his master and the more traditional one of the famous Izzeddin Ökte." 

There is a biography in Turkish in the internet, which the Google Translator translates unfortunately into quite some nonsense.

The Turkish Tanbur is considered the most important and most noble instrument of Ottoman music. In each generation in the last century there have been only very few great masters of this difficult instrument.

On the instrument see: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_tambur

http://www.turkishmusicportal.org/de/instrumente/turkische-klassische-musik-tanbur

http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN,98665/tambur.html

This cassette finishes quite abruptly on side B. We have made the end a little bit more smooth by creating a short fade out.

In 2011 we had posted from the same series a cassette by the great Kemence master Hasan Esen.

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About Izzeddin (Izzettin) Ökte (1910-1991)

Izzeddin Ökte was a famous Tanbur player who represented an old, very traditional style of Tanbur playing. His music was free of influences of the great Tanburi Cemil Bey (1873-1916), who was a very inspired musician with limitless creativity, who not only left an immense influence on Ottoman classical music, but also on many Arabic musicians of several generations. There are a number of CDs available by him. Recently a box of 10 CDs, 1 LP and a book was released by Kalan.

Izzeddin Ökte kept to the old art of Taksim playing and was and is only known to few connoiseurs. I remember still very vividly my first encounter with his music. In the mid 1980s I was in a Turkish bookshop in Berlin Kreuzberg and there was playing wonderful Tanbur music. I asked the owner if this music was for sale. He said that these were his private recordings and showed me a set of two cassettes by Izzeddin Ökte, published by an institution of music lovers in Istanbul. I never was able to obtain these recordings. Much later I discovered on a Turkish website (probably by the same institution of music lovers) these recordings as commercial downloads. But I was not able to download them as one needed apparently a Turkish bank card. See here for the first cassette and the second cassette.

In the meantime there are quite a number of recordings by him on YouTube, also partly those from the two cassettes. Here two beautiful longer collections of his music which I discovered a few days ago:

Sadreddin Özçimi - Ney Taksimleri - Cassette released in Turkey in 1980s or 1990s

Here another beautiful cassette by the great Neyzen (Ney master). Accompanied in the metrical parts by a Bendir.

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M. Sadreddin Özçimi - Ney Taksimleri - Cassette released in Turkey

Here we present a beautiful cassette of Taqsims (improvisations) on the Turkish Ney by Sadreddin Özçimi, the greatest Ney master (Neyzen) of his generation. He is in the tradition of Ney masters of the Mevlevi, the Whirling Dervishes. See here our other Ney posts.

Born in Konya in 1955, he studied under the great Ney masters Aka Gündüz Kutbay and Niyazi Sayın. He has quite a number of cassette and CD releases in Turkey.

See also (in Turkish): http://www.mutriban.com/neyzen-m-sadreddin-ozcimi-ile-musiki-ve-sanat-uzerine/

Sadreddin Özçimi also studied Ebru, the art of marbled paper, from the leading ebru masters of today. He published a book on this art. This is typical of traditional Ney masters: they very often were and are experts in several other traditional arts like calligraphy, ebru or the craft of manufacturing prayer beeds.

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Here beautiful examples by other artists:

Ashug (Ashiq) Yunis Hasanov - Folk Songs of Azerbaijan - LP released in Soviet Azerbaijan in 1979

Here we present - for comparison with our two earlier posts of Edalat Nasibov - a traditional Ashiq from Azerbaijan, accompanying himself on Saz. Normally the texts are in Ashiq music, as in these recordings, the most important part. It becomes quite evident here how innovative and creative Edalat Nasibov was.

See: https://wiki2.org/en/Ashiqs_of_Azerbaijan

Side 1:

A1 Bu erler
A2 Gurban olum
A3 Kurdem

Side 2:
B1 Deil
B2 Mehebbet
B3 Ana

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Ashiq Edalat Nasibov - Anonymous Cassette from the 1980s

Here another, even more fantastic recording by Edalat Nasibov. This is the rip of a cassette, which our friend Werner Durand copied in the 1980s from the collection of his Ney teacher.

Many thanks to Werner for sharing so generously.

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Ashiq Edalat Nasibov - Great Master (Ostad) of the Saz of Azerbaijan - Majlis (private concert) in Baku in 1989 - Cassette released in UK

We just received from our dear friend Werner Durand the rip of a cassette by Edalat Nasibov, the outstanding master (Ostad) of the Saz of Azerbaijan. Edalat Nasibov is probably the greatest master of this instrument in recent decades, playing a very virtuosic instrumental version of the music of the Ashiqs of Azerbaijan, next to Mugham the other great musical tradition in this country. Occasionally he sings also.

The French label Ocora released in 2003 a CD by him under the title: Edalat Nasibov - L'Art du Saz - The Art of the Saz. The CD was recorded by Jean During.

"With innovative instrumental techniques of fingering and tuning and a richly ornamental style, virtuoso sàz lute performer Edalat Nasibov plays tunes which explore the art of the âshyq (Azerbaijani bards whose golden age lasted from the 15th to the 16th centuries)." from the backside of  this CD.

The artist was born in 1939 and passed away in September 2017.

On the tradition of Ashiq music in Azerbaijan see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashiqs_of_Azerbaijan

https://kuzinthecaucasus.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/azerbaijan-the-ashiq-tradition/

http://unesco.preslib.az/en/page/eLG6UNJduv

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Many thanks to Werner for his generous sharing.

Habil Aliyev (1927-2015) - Playing of Habil Aliyev - Zabul Tesnifi, Çargah Tesnifi, Segah Tesnifi, Dogah Tesnifi - LP released in Soviet Azerbaijan in 1976

Here a wonderful LP by the great master, accompanied on Balaban, a double-reed wind instrument similar to the Armenian Duduk, which has here the function to provide a drone, played by N. Alakhverdiyev, and on Naqara, a kettle drum, played by Ali Amiraslanov. The Duduk is sometimes used to provide a drone in Azerbaijani Mugham music.

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Habil Aliyev (1927-2015) - Kemencheh from Azerbaijan - Folk Tunes - Cassette released in Iran probably in the late 1980s or the 1990s

Here another cassette by Habil Aliyev. This one has folk tunes and at the end some imitations of animals. He is accompanied here by the Iranian musician Arjang Kamkar on Tombak. Perhaps someone can provide a translation of the liner notes.

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Habil Aliyev (1927-2015) - Kemencheh from Azerbaijan - Bayat-e Shiraz, Dogah & Segah - Cassette released in Iran probably in the late 1980s or the 1990s

Here a beautiful cassette by the great Habil Aliyev, perhaps the greatest Kemenche master of the 20th century. I still remember vividly the moment, in the 1970s, when I first really became aware of the magic of his music: I had the old Bärenreiter Unesco LP Azerbaijan on my record player and had fallen asleep for a moment and woke up to the sound of his Kemenche. In the first moment I didn't know where I was and was just completely amazed about the sounds of this exquisite music which I perceived as the two voices of lovers in an extremely intimate conversation which went directly deep into my heart.

The cassette contains on side 1: Bayat-e Shiraz and on side 2: Dogah & Segah.

In 2015 we had posted an LP by him. Next we will post another cassette released in Iran and then another LP from 1976.

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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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Yusef Forutan (1891-1979) - Setar - Recordings which appeared by accident on a faulty pressing of an Ocora LP

Yusef Forutan was one of the handful of outstanding, incomparable masters of authentic Iranian music in mid 20th century. Amongst instrumentalists there were only two or three others of the same quality: Sa'id Hormozy and Ali Akbar Khan Shahnazi and perhaps Abolhassan Saba. At the end of his live he joined the The Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music and formed many young musicians like Dariush Tala'i, Jalal Zolfonun, Hossein Alizadeh, Dâvud Ganjeyi, Parviz Meshkatian and many more. He recorded there also a good part of his repertoire.

My friend Werner Durand had the bad, he first thought, but in the end very good luck, that, when he bought the re-edition of the Ocora box of two LPs "Iran 5 & 6 - Musiques d'Extase et de Guérison du Baloutchistan", orginally published in 1981, he got a faulty pressing of the first LP: instead of music from Balouchistan it had all pieces played on Setar. He soon realised that it was exceptional music. A friend of his, the percussionist Saam Schlamminger, who knows Iranian music well, told him that these were recordings by Yusef Forutan. At that time no recordings by the great artist had yet been published. We only can guess how these recordings ended up on the LP. Perhaps Jean During, the editor of the LP box, had handed in the wrong tape. He probably got these recordings during his long stay in Tehran at the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music from the beginning of the 1970s, where he studied Tar and the Radif for many years. He might have learned directly from Yusef Forutan. It could also be that the label mixed up the recordings. Perhaps Jean During had the intention to publish on Ocora in his series "Iran - Anthologie de la musique traditionnelle" also some older recordings by some of the great masters and had already handed in these recordings. Perhaps even Jean During recorded these himself. Anyway, this way these very precious recordings made it to the few music lovers who bought this faulty pressing.

Starting probaly in the late 1990s a number of CDs by Yusef Forutan were released in Iran: two single CDs and two boxes of 3 CDs each. These were partly recorded at the Center for Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music, partly in private concerts in the house of Ostad Mohammad-Mehdi Kamalian. On the two sides of the Ocora LP are three longer pieces and six short metrical pieces which are called Zarbis. If these recordings are identical with some of those on the CDs, I couldn't figure out yet. As soon as I know more, I will add the information here. 

Many thanks to Werner Durand for sharing these recordings so generously.

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By the way: I don't have the Ocora box of two LPs "Iran 5 & 6 - Musiques d'Extase et de Guérison du Baloutchistan" anymore. I replaced it later in my collection by the re-edition on 2 CDs which has a huge amount of additional material. So I will not post it. Sorry.

Dariush Tala'i & Djamchid Chemirani - Le Son direct du Concert IRAN du 11 mai 1982 sur France Musique - Set of two cassettes first published in France in 1983. Re-edition from 1988

Just received two days ago from my very dear friend Werner Durand a rip of this rare set of two cassettes. I had completely forgotten, that it existed. I had it in my hands in a private house in Paris in the 1980s, but had no chance to copy it then. Many many thanks to Werner Durand for his very generous sharing.

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