[not quite] the complete recordings of Iranian freakbeat swamis The Golden Ring, as advertised, but featuring some of the earliest solo stabs of lead singer Aref Arefkia, which leaves one stubborn single still floating around out there somewhere [according to enthusiasts who actually own originals of these impossibly rare 45's?]. i got hip to this whole persian psych scene by virtue of radiodiffusion's multiple mind expanding expositions & shortly thereafter managed to scrounge raks x 3, pomegranates & mehrpouya, finding meself thoroughly infected with full-blown farsi funk fever. جرقه زننده 192 rips!
01. Gol Bi Goldoun 02. Sahel Va Darya 03. Bizar 04. Sekeh Khorshid 05. Doe Mahi 06. Yadet Basheh 07. Anrouz 08. Sabz-O-Sefeed 09. Gol Gham 10. Daryaye Entezar 11. Koucheh 12. Felfel 13. Jomeh 14. Shad E Shad
'Googoosh was born 'Faegeh Atashin' on 5 May 1950, in Sarcheshmeh Street of Tehran. Her father, Saber Atashin was an Iranian Azerbaijani who emigrated back to his native Iran several years before his marriage. While Googoosh was still an infant, her father divorced her mother & she began doing impersonations of some of the singers of the time. When her father discovered this talent, he put her on stage. She was raised bilingual, being fluent in the Persian and Azerbaijani languages. She was the cultural ambassador to troubled regions like Iraq and Afghanistan. Being bilingual from the beginning of her life gave her an upper hand in understanding others. She became interested in the languages of the Mediterranean and learned many of them. Thus, she has fluently sung hits in Arabic, English, French, and Italian during her career as well, winning awards for many of these songs.
She is known for her contributions to Iranian pop music, but also starred in a variety of movies from the 1950s to the 1970s. She achieved the pinnacle of her fame and success towards the end of the 1970s. Her overall impact and contributions to Middle Eastern and Central Asian pop-music earned her the title of the most iconic female pop-singer from those regions. Due to her great talents and overall endearment to her people, she is eternally a symbol of national-pride to the Iranian people.
After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, she is famously known for remaining in Iran until 2000 and not performing again due to the ban on female singers. Still, her following grew. Younger people have rediscovered her music via bootleg recordings. Outside of Iran, she has a significant following in many Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries, and has even caught the attention of western media and press. Googoosh is rumored to reside in an estimated $16 million valued estate near Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, and continues her career, albeit in a limited manner.' wiki
'Googoosh is a female singer with an enchanting voice and a mix of local and international-magpie elements in her music. Her voice is lighter than Fairuz, but at times almost as ravishing.' ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music
the most consistent collection i could trace from this gawdess, featuring five or six serious stunners. better odds than on most lp's when you think about it. some lovely schtuff too, especially when juxtaposed betwixt some funkier african jams [like that vintage ebo taylor joint on strut, por ejemplo]. and though there's typically some slapback echo or reverb effect on her velvety, enveloping voice, the melodies are mostly mid paced numbers with orchestrated strings & what sounds like combo organ accompaniment. so apart from her otherworldly superlungs, there aint much overtly funky or psychedelique here & apparently zero overlap with this impending sickness either. 320 er FLACK fer the bit racist amongst ya. furthermore
googoosh is like the sweetest sounding name ever. what could it mean? this track borrows the same groove as heaven on their minds from jesus christ superstain, along with soyle beni by grazia. perhaps the melody is even older tho? i've no clue, but i endeavor to get to the bottom of it :) here goes a hq mp3 of talagh sourced from the lovely pomegranates comp on finders keepers. fun schtuff
Kurdish Music from Iran - Ali Akbar Moradi - Mystical odes and secular music (Musique kurde d'Iran - Odes mystiques et musique profane) Inedit W 260103, recorded 2000, CD released 2001
فرامرز پایور Farâmarz Pâyvar [1933 - 2009, Tehran] was an Iranian virtuoso of the santur, a 72-stringed hammered dulcimer. He was born into an aristocratic family of artists. His father, Ali Pâyvar, was a painter & professor of French at the University of Tehran. Both his father and grandfather played santur & violin, & were associated with the great musicians of their eras. Pâyvar’s mother was also interested in the arts in general & musique in particular. She was aware of her son’s talent and encouraged him to play the instrument.
At the tender age of 17, Pâyvar began his musical career by studying with renowned Iranian musician Abolhassan Saba [1902-1957]. He studied the Radif repertory & played the santur with Saba for eight years before he graduated from his mastership class & was able to play alongside his teacher Abolhassan Saba on Iranian National Radio.
Pâyvar was highly skilled on the santur and soon became very famous. After Saba’s death he began to study with four other masters: Nur-Ali Borumand, Rokneddin Mokhtari, Abdollah Davami, and Haji Aqa Mohammad Irani.
In 1958, Payvar began teaching the santur at the National Music Conservatory. Although once perceived as marginal, the santur is now considered an important solo instrument in Persian classical musique, largely as a result of his work. Over the course of his career, Pâyvar revolutionised its playing, led two major ensembles and made numerous recordings.
He also published several books on practical and theoretical aspects of Iranian classical musique. These included a series of influential guides on how to play the santur, & a popular manual for the tar, a long-necked lute said to embody the spirit of Iranian musique.
Pâyvar was renowned for his strict personal discipline and demanded the same of his students as well as members of his ensembles. This meant that their line-ups hardly altered at all, in contrast with the volatile changes that affected other contemporary Persian groups.
He founded his own school of performance for the santur, with a novel emphasis on arpeggiated figures reflecting an openness to 'Western' influence. Another innovation that caused controversy among some traditionalists was his use of felt on the hammers used to strike the instrument's strings. This resulted in a softer, less metallic tone that was suggestive of the piano – itself thought to have been derived from the santur.
Before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, & after the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Pâyvar travelled internationally as a cultural ambassador for Persian musique, performing in North America, Britain, Europe, various Soviet Republics and Japan. During the 1960s and 1970s he recorded a number of albums for French labels. We may remember his legacy through his many peerless recordings. r.i.p. Farâmarz Pâyvar 1933 - 2009
حسین تهرانی Hossein Tehrâni [1912 – February 25, 1974] was the most influential tombak player of the 20th century. Born in 1912 in Tehran [where else?] he began his studies at a time when tombak playing was regarded not as a respected music career for the player. "When I began to play tombak, the instrument was a humiliated one & according to general consensus it was only suited for low-class musicians," he once said. From 1928 he went to study tombak with Hossein Esmailzadeh, himself a master kamanche player. Since modern musical notation was not common during those days, he used mnemonic devices to memorize rhythmic patterns.
He single-handedly is responsible for the high stature attained nowadays by tombak, through his originality of musicianship and due to his generous personality. He also formed a tombak ensemble to encourage young players to play in group and with large orchestras. To provide them with a performing repertory he also composed fantastic pieces for the ensemble. He died in 1973 after a long period of illness. May his memory will be cherished forever. r.i.p. Hossein Tehrâni 1912 – 1974
someone fond of the Mortezā Mahjubi recordings inquired about a good santur joint & this is one i spin frequently. one can readily hear the masters' felt on the hammers technique resulting in resonances not unlike some alien iranian piano, complimented by some encroyable tombak accompaniment. my guess is that these recordings were made in the 60's. 320 thanks to Ambrose Bierce for illumination & stellar sounds. حفاری عمیق تر
1 dastgahe se gah دستگاه سه گاه 2 dastgahe homayoon دستگاه همایون 3 bayate tork بیات ترک 4 avaze dashti آواز دشتی 5 avaze aboo ata آواز ابو عطا 6 avaze afshari آواز افشاری
Mortezā Mahjoubi مرتضی محجوبی [Tehran, 1900 - 1965] was an innovative, largely self-educated composer & performer who was renowned for his masterful utilization of the piano in performing traditional Iranian musique. Mortezā came from a musical family; his father, Abbas Ali Mahjoubi, played the ney, the Persian wooden flute; his mother, Fakhressadat, could play a little piano & his brother, Reza Mahjoubi, became a great violinist. Morteza's family happened to own a piano, a rare possession among people of Tehran during that time.
This very suitable family atmosphere & his own natural genius helped Morteżā to get initiated into the world of musique in his early childhood. As a child, he often sat behind the piano & played this instrument in his own childish fashion, creating certain tunes. His parents, noticing his aptitude for musique, took him to Ḥosayn Hangāfarin, a famous musician & performer of violin & piano to teach him the basics of musique & performance of the piano. They later sent him to Maḥmud Mofaḵḵam, a pianist & outstanding student of master musician Āqā Ḥosaynqoli, to further familiarize him with the repertoire [radif] and melody sections [guša] of traditional Persian musique & to aid him in mastering the art of piano playing.
Maḥjubi’s genius in absorbing musique manifested itself from early childhood. By the time he was ten years old, he had become an expert pianist who played in the gatherings of the aristocracy. His fame as a child prodigy reached such proportions that he, at the age of ten, participated in a concert featuring ʿĀref Qazvini & accompanied ʿĀref’s singing on the piano. Since ʿĀref was extremely fastidious in regard to the performance of his band’s members, his acceptance of a young boy as his own back-up performer illustrates Maḥjubi’s masterful excellence as a youthful pianist. He had become a well-known musician by the age of twelve and was regarded, by many, as the leading piano performer of his thyme.
Maḥjubi was not familiar with the international system of musical notation, so he invented his own system of writing music by using symbols that were somewhat similar to the siāq script (a system of signs once used in accounting. Parviz Yāḥaqqi, the Persian composer and violinist, has related that he had once composed a song that was to be broadcast on the radio. When the musical note sheets were distributed to the members of the orchestra, Maḥjubi asked Yāḥaqqi to play the song on the violin. He then jotted the tune down in his own style of writing music on the back of his cigarette pack. When the rehearsal started, Maḥjubi’s performance was unexpectedly more accurate than the rest of the orchestra.
After the establishment of the Radio Tehran, Maḥjubi was one of the first musicians to join & take part in its musical programs. Later, in 1956, when radio program entitled Golhā was launched, Maḥjubi became one of the most outstanding figures of this musical program, which aimed at demonstrating the aesthetic relationship between poetry and music in Persian culture. According to those present, Maḥjubi would sometimes go to the Golhā studio at Radio Tehran without an appointment or an advanced notice and play the piano in solitude. On such occasions, the technical personnel of the Golhā program would, without Maḥjubi’s knowledge, record his performance on tape. These recordings are now considered among the treasures of traditional Persian musique.
The significance of Maḥjoubi’s work is partly in the fact that he performed Persian melodies on a completely Western instrument with such masterful excellence that one would think the piano was truly a Persian instrument. Maḥjubi’s melodies & style contain embellishments and accents that brilliantly manifest genuine characteristics of Persian musique.
Maḥjubi was one of the most prominent improvising music performers. He always began playing without advanced planning and his works always took form under the influence of his feelings and his sentimental impressions at the time of playing the piano. For this reason, if he played in the Dašti mode ten different times, ten very different works would be created. Due to this style of work, none of his compositions resemble any other.
On a related 'note', further precious pianoriental recordings from Mortezā were subsequently dropped here & an lp by one of his contemporaries, iranian pianist Javad Ma'roufi, were recently unfurled by the resplendant ghostcapital
