Ali-Akbar Shahnazi

Ali Akbar Shahnazi (1897 – 1986) was an Iranian musician and master of the tar.

Early Life and Musical Interest

Ali Akbar Shahnazi was born in 1897 in the city of Tehran, Iran. His father, Mirza Hossein Gholi, a great master of the tar, named him Ali Akbar according to a very old Persian tradition in which the grandson was to be given the same name as his grandfather.

Shahnazi began learning tar from his father at the age of 7. After five years, he reached the level where he was able to teach some of his father's students.

At the age of 14, Shahnazi recorded two gramophone disks by playing some of the most famous Persian melodies of that time on the tar, such as Avaz-e-Afshari and Avaz-e-Bayat-e-Tork. Shahnazi also accompanied the great vocalist Jenab Damavandi.

Teaching Career, Radifs, and Death

At the age of 18, after the death of his father, Shahnazi became responsible for his father's class and began teaching them. He continued at a steady pace, and fourteen years later in 1929, he established the Shahnazi Music School.

He recorded many pieces with the great vocalists of his time, such as Eghbal Azar, Nakisa. He also collaborated with other great masters of his time, namely Reza Mahjubi (violinist) and Hossein Tehrani (“father of modern tonbak”).

Not only did Shahnazi teach his students the radif of his father, but he himself composed a very beautiful radif that was later named “Radif-e Dore-ye-ali.” Shahnazi taught this radif to his students as well, and he finally recorded it in 1977. He had already recorded his father's back in 1962.

Shahnazi passed away in 1986 at the age of 88.

Trivia

*Shahnazi came from a family called Khandan-e-Honar in Persian, which literally means “art dynasty.”
*To reemphasize the above fun fact, Shahnazi came from an incredibly musical family; his younger brother, Abdolhossein, was a very skilled tar player; his uncle, Mirza Abdollah, was an excellent setar player and teacher; his nephew, Gholam Hossein Khan, was yet another wonderful tar player; and his grandfather, Ali Akbar Khan of the village of Farahan in the city of Arak, was another great master of the tar.

References

*Haghighat, A., Honarmandan e Irani az Aghaz ta Emrooz, Koomesh Publication, 2004, (in Persian)
*Khaleghi, R., Sargozasht e Musighi e Iran, Ferdowsi Publication, 1955, (in Persian)

External links

* [http://darvish.net/Albums/Instrumental/AliAkbarShahnaziTar.htm A sample of his work]
* [http://santoori.com/html/ostad_ali_akbar_shahnazi.html] Biography and Audio Sample