http://youtu.be/CmHyjlmz_B4 How about this for something innovative? Nice to see my old musical compadre Francois Cambuzat hooking up with a
giant like Lotfi Bouchnak and creating something truly majestic............Giorgioud - 5-9-2012 at 10:14 AM
http://youtu.be/CGkHx_CIk8A et un autre......en francais, I'm afraid.........Giorgioud - 5-9-2012 at 10:17 AM
http://youtu.be/TROVbG06xFY ....and he's the master I'm going to study with in Tunis in a couple of months...yayyyy!!!! Ashref CharguiArarat66 - 5-9-2012 at 11:24 AM
Brilliant stuff Giorgio - how did that come about.
Nice one ... and some sunshine too
LeonGiorgioud - 5-11-2012 at 12:34 AM
Hello Leon,
yes , we should hook up, long overdue, please do call me when it suits you best. How did that come about? I played with Francois for years eons ago,
recording for Virgin and touring, then our paths diverged: me to England, he to the rest of the continent. Lutfi Bouchnak saw his band L'Enfance Rouge
on Al-Jazeera and a collaboration started taking shape. So he's been living in Tunis for a while (he has left recently to re-locate in Perpignan,
Southern France, the base of the greatest gypsy flamenco players in Europe). He knows all the musicians in the Tunis music scene, and he had
introduced me to people he knows. Great players like these http://youtu.be/PRidK8HDsSo , old Francois knows his thing and he has become a mean flamenco player too in the meantime. Something truly awful in
the meantime happened: my mother died two weeks ago, all of a sudden without any warning. I've got her last month's pension here with me (while it's
barely adequate for a dignified living in Europe, in Tunis it's possible to get by for quite a while on it) to put to good use: spend a couple of
months in Tunis, more of course if it's possible, Francois has put his portfolio of contacts to my perusal and I will need to do some serious
networking, learning Arab and bettering my rusty French. Life's like that sometimes: something bad happens but it's offset by something good. And if I
can always count of friends like Francois, well, I am truly blessed. And I will try to do my own thing while inshallah, trying to put a smile on the
world......Ararat66 - 5-11-2012 at 04:53 AM
Hi Giorgio
I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. I'm excited for you also in times of change.
Best wishes
LeonArarat66 - 5-11-2012 at 12:15 PM
btw Giorgio
That's beautiful oud playing in that clip - reminds me a little of Ara Dinkjian
oh and sorry it's not really linked but there is a video of dinkjian that I like
I am even more off topic with my question.
Anybody has an idea of which sort of pick up Ara Dinkjian uses in this video? It sounds great.
RobertGiorgioud - 5-12-2012 at 01:26 PM
Leon: thanks for the condolences, always appreciated......change's always welcome, is staledom which is undesired...
Stos: yes, Ashref Chargui he's based in Tunis, although I have to say that he really takes a loooooong time to answer e-mails.....if ever......
Leon and Stos: well, thanks for introducing me then again to another great player. I really really loved his style, a lot actually, another great
lesson. Is he Turkish, Armenian or Turco-Armenian?
Robert: not off topic at all mate, actually I'd love to know myself what pick-up Ara Dinkjan uses in the clip, as it seems to me the Holy Grail we're
all looking for: a pick-up that makes the oud sound great. Anyone who knows, please drop us a line, I would buy it in a shot, even though I suspect it
might cost a bitMicrober - 5-13-2012 at 02:21 AM
Hi Giorgioud,
For the question about the pick up used by Ara Dinkjian, maybe it could be more effective to redirect to the famous :BIG THREAD ON PICKUPS
See you there...
RobertArarat66 - 5-13-2012 at 11:40 AM
Hi Giorgio
Ara is Armenian/American and has a very fluid and poetic way of playing. He's played as the band Night Ark with Arto Tuncboyacyan (Armenian Navy
Band).
Back to your friend Ashref - what is the first thing you will ask him to teach you??
LeonGiorgioud - 5-13-2012 at 01:48 PM
Hi Leon,
yes, I suspected he might have been Armenian. A very good player indeed, I love that kind of style especially....
Ashref is, unfortunately, not a friend of mine (yet), he's a friend of a friend of mine who's more than a simple friend, he's a brother, a mentor and
an inspiration, that Francois Cambuzat who I had the good fortune to share a juggernaut of a musical journey with a long time ago and he taught me
almost everything I should know about music, who has a superb ensemble called L'Enfance Rouge and he has just made an album with the great Tunisian
singer Lotfi Bouchnak which is going to shake the world. That part of it which is still awake, anyway.............
btw, sorry to hear what happened to your gorgeous oud....I ignored the thread for a long time because my notions of liuthery are limited to moving the
pegs forward and backward at best, then out of curiosity I eventually read it and it was you, or better, your Tasos! Crickey, that must have been
shocking to witness! I hope you will sort it out soon enough, I am sure you will, here in this website alone you will get all the help you need, as
you know better than me...............
As for Ashref, maybe the first thing I will ask him to teach me is the address of the shop where he buys his shirts and his coat.....quite elegant, no
doubt...........
Hello Robert,
yes, the famous thread.....you know, maybe it's just me and my small brain, I must have gone through all the various opinions, most of them if not all
brilliant and well-informed, dozens of times, and I still haven't made neither head nor tail vis-a-vis which pick-up is the best. Many options are
pointed out there which confuse me even furtherly: which size of an auditorium you're playing, open air, weather conditions, playing with a
traditional Arabic outfit or with Black Sabbath (a sensible enquiry), etc etc etc.
I (just as you and all of them out there I am sure) just want a pick-up wich is good for every evenience, doesn't feed back at elevate volume and
gives a more-or-less faithful rendition of the sound of the thing I am playing........oh, and also allows me to blow the Marshall stacks with sheer
white noise when I play my version of "Vodoo Chile" and can be fixed, even with sellotape, after I frenziedly crash the oud repeatedly on stage a' la
Pete Townshend........... Giorgioud - 5-14-2012 at 03:10 AM
To Stos:
just spoke to Ashref and has just told me there's no problem if you'd like some lessons with him, you just gotta plan when. Would you like to contact
him to see his availability? Of course, he lives in Tunis.
