Maqam

Mike...delighted you've found Munir Bashir...I am very fortunate; in the last year and a half I've become good friends with Rahim Alhaj (www.rahimalhaj.com), a great Iraqi oud maestro, and a long time student of Bashir...he studied with Munir for 6 years at the Baghdad Conservatory. I also just counted my oud CD's up, and found I have over 50...it's a style/instrument I am really into...Rahim just got me a nice Iraqi oud as well, starting to work with it a bit. If you'll post me at microstick@..., I'd love to chat more...off to a gig right now. I do know this...from what Rahim has said, they are taught the micro tones (quartertones, as Rahim says, but he doesn't mean 1/4 tones) as they relate to each particular maqam...not so much by studying ratios/etc. It's great music indeed, and Munir Bashir is a legendary figure...get "Mesopotamia," it's on Amazon, a 2 CD set, it'll blow your shorts...more later...Stickman www.microstick.net

Whatever you guys are talking about, it has nothing to do with the music of the Arabs/Turks/Persians...best...Stickman

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Neil Haverstick <microstick@...> wrote:
>
>    Mike...delighted you've found Munir Bashir...I am very fortunate; in the last year and a half I've become good friends with Rahim Alhaj (www.rahimalhaj.com), a great Iraqi oud maestro, and a long time student of Bashir...he studied with Munir for 6 years at the Baghdad Conservatory. I also just counted my oud CD's up, and found I have over 50...it's a style/instrument I am really into...Rahim just got me a nice Iraqi oud as well, starting to work with it a bit. If you'll post me at microstick@..., I'd love to chat more...off to a gig right now. I do know this...from what Rahim has said, they are taught the micro tones (quartertones, as Rahim says, but he doesn't mean 1/4 tones) as they relate to each particular maqam...not so much by studying ratios/etc. It's great music indeed, and Munir Bashir is a legendary figure...get "Mesopotamia," it's on Amazon, a 2 CD set, it'll blow your shorts...more later...Stickman   www.microstick.net

Neil - I'll get it for sure. Thanks for this. I just found this
recording as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5xqD_t11ig

This is the best one I've found yet.

-Mike

Mike, that was a great recording, and it inspired me to go buy some of his stuff.

Nick, I had a little money left over from an iTunes gift card and, since Apple didn't have "Mesopotamia", I bought "Maqamat" instead. (They transliterate his last name "Bachir".) Listening now, and it's really cool.

Thanks for the leads!

Regards,
Jake

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5xqD_t11ig
>