Farzad Bazgir

Farzad Bazgir is a tanbur player and composer. In his own words, his attachment to the tanbur began in childhood: his family home stood next to the Zemkan river, and on its porch his grandfather would play and sing the maqams Sartarz, Gol-o Khak, Bariya and Gharibi. He names masters such as Ali Akbar Moradi, Taher Yarveysi and Heydar Kaki as the ones who made the path of learning the instrument easier for him. He also says that hearing the maqam Sar-Khayvi sung by Kaki Allahmorad Hamidi, about twenty years ago, changed the course of his life.

Works

• Zemkan: seven instrumental pieces based on the tanbur maqams, composed and played on the tanbur by Farzad Bazgir with Zakaria Yousefi on percussion. According to Bazgir it was released in 1397 SH (2018) by Ravi Azar Kimia; on BeepTunes it has been available since Ordibehesht 1398 (spring 2019).

• “Chaw wa Ri” (Await): a Kurdish song with tanbur, piano and dohol (February 2024).

• Bawan: nine pieces, about 52 minutes, with vocals by Kambiz Rajabi, shimshal by Nima Shafiei and Kurdish zarb by Aziz Kangarlou. Released by Avay-e Hananeh in Esfand 1403 SH (February 2025).

On his YouTube channel he has posted pieces from Zemkan, an ensemble performance of the maqam Jangara with Sayad Mohammadi and Afshin Saebnejad, and an old recording of Kaki Allahmorad Hamidi singing a maqam.

Interview

In November 2018 the programme “Neyestan” on Radio Farhang interviewed him about the tanbur in Kermanshah. The programme can be heard in three parts in the Tanburban podcast (in Persian).

Sources: video descriptions on his YouTube channel farzad bazgir; the album pages on BeepTunes and Apple Music; the release report for “Bawan” in Cinema Journal; the Telegram channel “Navaye Tanbur”.