Kaki Vali Mirzaei Gurajubi

Kaki Vali Mirzaei Gurajubi was one of the great masters of the tanbur.

In the time of Agha Seyed Brakeh, Kaki Mirza was named the first tanbur player of Guran (according to a document in the records of the Agha family). The late Kaki Mirza had two sons, Kaki Qanbar and Kaki Reza, who both continued their father's path, ways and art. Kaki Reza Mirzaei Gurajubi reached the highest level of mastery during the leadership of Agha Seyed Rostam and Agha Seyed Shamseddin; he performed all the maqams (traditional melodic pieces/modes of the tanbur) and nazms (verse settings) of the kalam (the sacred hymns of the Yarsan) and the tanbur without omission, with the approval of the Agha family. His brother Kaki Qanbar was a master and scribe approved by the Agha family and their confidant.

Kaki Qanbar had four sons, all of whom, like their father, were masters of kalam and tanbur. They all lived in the village of Gurehjub-e Qeshlaq of the Guran tribe and kept a jamkhaneh (the Yarsan ritual gathering house) known as “Diwakhan-e Kaki Mirza”. The late Kaki Vali Mirzaei Gurajubi was one of these four sons.

Kaki Vali was born in 1279 SH (1900/01) in Gurehjub-e Qeshlaq. Under his father and his uncle he mastered all the maqams and nazms of the tanbur, and in his day he was very famous and renowned. Only one cassette tape of him survives, recorded in Qasr-e Shirin in 1348 SH (1969/70). He spent his 72 years of honourable life on the path of Haqq (the Truth) and in service to the Yarsan people, and died on 25 Farvardin 1351 SH (14 April 1972).

Source: Telegram channel “Navaye Tanbur”, 16 March 2017; written by Alireza Abbasi Gurehjubi (16 May 2012).