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* Ali Akbar Moradi, born in Kermanshah in 1957, is the leading tanbur player from Kurdistan, Iran. He began playing tanbur at the age of six. His grandfather loved the tanbur and encouraged the young Moradi to play. Teachers would come to their house to give lessons on the tanbur, and by the time Moradi was 10, he was considered an accomplished tanbur player. Throughout his youth he studied with various masters of the instrument until he was accepted as a virtuoso. From 12 years on Moradi sought and took lessons from the grand masters of Kurdish tanbur: Sayyed Veli Husseini, Sayyed Mirza Khafashyan, Sayyed Mahmoud Alevi, Allahmouradi Hamedi, who were also all vocalists. By the age of 30 he completed learning the entire 72 maghams played on tanbur. Mr. Moradi's professional career began in 1971 as a member of the first tanbur ensemble in Kermanshah. He has won many awards including two honorary diplomas at major music festivals in Iran. Moradi has performed as a soloist and with ensembles in festivals throughout the world. He has a unique style that sets him apart from other players of this instrument.

Presently Mr. Moradi is preparing the complete 72 maghams of Kurdish tanbur for teaching purposes. He teaches tanbur in Kermanshah and every two weeks he travels to Tehran to give lessons. In February 1999, Mr. Moradi toured US for concerts and lectures, and this recording was made during his visit of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pejman Hadadi accompanies in this recording Ali Akbar Moradi on daf and on tombak. Hadadi is the finest Iranian percussionist living in the United States. The daf, the traditional frame drum of Kurdish music, is played in a very unique style. Pejman Hadadi, born in Tehran in 1969, began studying the tombak at the age of ten with Asadullah Hejazi and later he continued his studies with Bahman Rajavi, one of the great tombak players of Iran. Hadadi has toured North America with Hossein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor, and Shahram Nazeri, and is currently a member of the Dastan Ensemble. He is an accomplished daf player and he is known for his innovative style, bringing new sounds and techniques to tombak. He teaches tombak and daf in California, where he resides.

Hossein Behroozi-Nia was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1962. He studied tar with   Vohdaney, barbat with M. Nariman and radif with Mr. M. R. Lotfi. He studied at the Conservatory of Persian Music and was the Musical Director of Ensemble Khaleghi and Director of Musical Education at the Center for the Preservation of Persian Music. Mr. Behroozi-Nia is currently Musical Director of the National Radio and Television Orchestra of Tehran. He has collaborated and performed with different traditional music ensembles including Aref, Mowlana, and Dastan. He has given concerts in North America, Europe, Asia and Southwest Asia. Most recently Mr. Behroozi-Nia performed at the Sacred Music Festival in Fez, Morocco. He has made many recordings with great variety of ensembles as well as his solo works Barbat, Koohestan and Yadestan. At this time, he is considered a rare master of the unique instrument, barbat.

Barbat is a short-necked lute with a pear shaped body. It is an ancient Persian instrument and is the direct predecessor to the Arab 'ud and the European lute. It became very popular in the Arab courts where it was brought by major Persian composers during the Arab Empire. The present day barbat has five pairs of strings while original instrument had only four strings.

Tanbur is the ancestor of most long-necked, plucked stringed instruments.  Its pear shaped belly is usually carved out of one piece of mulberry wood. Some modern tanburs are made of bent ribs of mulberry wood. It has a long  neck with fourteen gut frets. Its soundboard, also made of mulberry wood,  has numerous small holes for better resonance. The tanbur has a unique playing technique whereby the strings are strummed across the soundboard with the fingers of the right hand to produce a very full and even tremolo called shorr (literally meaning the pouring of water).  This technique, which is very difficult to master. Along with various kinds  of plucking (usually with the index and pinkie fingers), it enables the musician to produce different effects and various rhythmic accentuations, which imitate the natural sounds of the environment, such as a running  stream, a waterfall, a bird chirping, or a horses' gallop, all translated into musical rhythms and sounds and creating the effect of several instruments being played at once. The ancient tanbur used to have two silk or gut strings tuned in 4th or 5th, similar to the dotar (two stringed lute), its close relative widely used in Eastern Iran. Although these two instruments share a similar history and are basically the same, they have developed their own repertoires, playing techniques and functions. According to the master instrument maker Ustad  Mehdi Kamalian, the name tanbur is taken from the word tandur or tanur, meaning clay oven, as early instrument makers dried tree trunks chosen to  carve the belly in tanurs for several hours in order to perfect the sound. Gradually the instrument took on the name tanbur. The present tanbur has three strings and covers the range of one octave and  two notes. The lower pair of strings, made of steel, are tuned in unison anywhere from a (flat) to b and are fingered together functioning as the melody strings. The top string made of copper or brass, slightly thicker, tuned in lower fourth or fifth, functions as a sympathetic string with occasional fingering by the thumb. The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated with  the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran and it is believed that its  repertoire is based on ancient Persian music. Up until the last fifty years this instrument was used only during djamm gatherings (devotional or liturgic ceremonies) of the Ahle-Haqq (the people of truth), followers of a  particular Sufi order. (Tanbur notes written by Kayhan Kalhor)

Tombak is a goblet-shaped drum carved from solid mulberry wood and covered  at the wide end with lamb or goat skin. It is held horizontally and played with both hands. The finger technique is extremely elaborate and consists of rolling and snapping the fingers in various ways, which allow for a great  variety of sounds.

Daf is a large frame drum covered with goat-skin which has one or more rows of metal rings on the inside adding a jingle effect. The daf is generally used in Sufi and folk music. Although at first sight, it appears to be a relatively simple instrument, the daf can produce intricate rhythmic patterns and sounds.

Kurdish Tanbur Music of Iran The name tanbur (or tenbur, tambur, tanpura, tanburitza) is used for several similar yet somewhat different instruments in South West Asia, India and in Western China. It varies in shape, size, modal tuning, and the playing techniques in different regions. The tanbur Mr. Moradi plays is an ancient traditional Kurdish instrument from Iranian Kurdistan. The early masters of tanbur music: Sayyed Veli Husseini, Sayyet Mirza Khafashyan, Sayyed Mahmoud Alevi and Allahmouradi Hamedi, all taught Ali Akbar Moradi. When Mr.Moradi was growing up in the Houraman region of Iran, tanbur had a very revered and sacred place in Kurdish music, and among the people, because of its use by the dervishes of the Ahle-Haqq Sufi order (Ahle-Haqq in Iran is similar to the Alevi/Bektashi order in Turkey). This  sacred instrument has a soundboard with small holes drilled for resonance and a long neck with moveable gut frets with 15-17 unequal intervals. It has 2 main strings and 1 bam string (a sympathetic string with occasional fingering by the thumb). Tanbur has no quartertones. Kurdish Tanbur music has three forms:
   1- Avaz (vocal form with a wide variety of rhythms)
   2- Maghamati Majlisi-avaz
   3- Maghamati Majazi --this is the contemporary Kurdish music
       A) Tanbur music (this is the oldest form)
       B) Ghoureh avazi
       C) Noureh (without rhythm)
Houraman Region's Kurdish Music form Siyachamaneh consists of:
   1- Bezmi Chaplah with rhythm is played at Deryaneh Khanagah (Dervish sacred school, and residence and ceremony hall).
   2- Souz
   3- Kar (work songs)
   4- Lullubies
   5- Saheri (morning songs with zirne)
   6- Sawar sawar (horseback riding songs)
   7- Chengerah (war songs)

Kurdish people live in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Afghanistan, and in many countries of Europe. They do not have an independent state of their own, although they number around 30 million. Present recording is entirely improvisational Kurdish music based on classical Kurdish Maghams. Ali Akbar Moradi and Pejman Hadadi had played together three times before this studio recording, which was done on February 22nd. 1999, Richmond California, in one sitting. I want to thank World Music Institute, NY, and Isabel Soffer for inviting Mr. Moradi to US and making this CD production possible.

(Kutay Derin Kugay)