Davood Azizi

Davood Azizi, son of Khosrow – one of the tanbur masters of the Guran region – was born in February/March 1970 in the Tofangchi area of Guran. He learned to play from childhood with his elder brother, Golnazar Azizi, who holds a special place among musicians and artists. Like his elder brother, from his teenage years onwards he arrived, through research into and deep reflection on the works of his predecessors, at a distinctive style of playing, composing and singing. The main instruments he played were the tanbur and the setar (a small long-necked lute), but he also played the tar (a long-necked lute), rubab, oud, kamancheh (spike fiddle), ghaychak and tombak with skill and charm. He had complete command of the instrumental and vocal radif (the core repertoire of Iran’s classical music), and like his father and elder brother he was a skilled maker of tanburs, tars and setars.

Davood Azizi’s artistic activity produced numerous concerts with well-known ensembles such as the Shams Tanbur Ensemble led by Keykhosrow Pournazeri. He also worked with the Shams Tanbur Ensemble as a player and singer on the production of works such as Afsaneh-ye Tanbur (“The Legend of the Tanbur”), with the voice of Bijan Kamkar, Mastan Salamat Mikonand (“The Enraptured Greet You”) and Nishtman (“Homeland”). (His name as a player was, however, removed from this work.) He worked as a player and composer on many works, though as a “shadow”. (Shadow = an artist whose name does not appear on the work.)

Among his published works are the album Maqam-e Bastan (“The Ancient Maqam”), a tanbur solo, and the album Jomleh Yeki Bud (“All Was One”), on which he is the singer and composer.

Among his works awaiting publication are the album Malamat-e Dust (“The Beloved’s Reproach”), a treatise on rhythm and a tanbur method in three volumes.

The album Jomleh Yeki Bud is a research work on khanqah music (the music of Sufi lodges) and was released last year by the Hozeh Honari (Art Bureau) – though with a completely changed cover design, with one of the pieces removed, and with the words “functional khanqah music” removed from the cover.

Davood Azizi did not learn the maqams (the traditional melodic pieces of the tanbur repertoire) and composition from Ali Nazeri (Keykhosrow Pournazeri). Rather, he learned composition through the teaching of his elder brother, through study, research and reflection on the work of his predecessors, through an intensive course with Ahmad Pejman, and by applying his creativity and his exceptional musical genius. In fact, Ali Nazeri learned the tanbur maqams from Golnazar Azizi, at a time when Golnazar was still in Iran – something that all those close to them and the leading figures of Iranian music are aware of. It should be mentioned, however, that when Davood Azizi was 9 years old he attended two music theory sessions in classes that Ali Nazeri held in Kermanshah, and he always spoke fondly of these two sessions.

Davood Azizi bade farewell to this earthly world at dawn on Thursday, 23 April 2009, as the result of a cardiac arrest, just as he always used to sing: “I am a bird of the heavenly garden, not of the world of dust – for a few days I have made a cage out of my body.”