Does anyone have any information of Amin Haddad's ouds of Haifa? Price, quality and sound.
Thanks, Alfaraby - 3-6-2013 at 01:54 PM
My post No. 400 is dedicated in memory of:
Amine Haddad - Haifa
Amine was one of hardly any Palestinian oud makers in the early 1960's, and the only qanoun maker in Palestine/Israel. Born in 1939, he lived and
worked in Haifa till his last day. First, he worked as a teacher at the Frères School in Haifa, and from the mid 1960's he hired a place and started
making his first instruments. He played both qanoun and oud; and used to try his instruments before offering them for sale. In his modest workshop in
Aljabal street, downtown Haifa, he welcomed musicians and just curious pedestrians who passed by and demonstrated his latest production for
them .
His ouds were famous for the MOP works he used to make, which became a trade mark of his ouds. He was one of three makers those days, back in the
sixties, along with Deeb Jubran & later on his son Basem (RIP) & (long live) Kamil Mowais of Nazareth.
As to the sound of his ouds, it might range from modest to very good, but one thing for sure, is that his ouds are great with pickups; so, active
performers liked them and used to play them especially in weddings parties. On the other hand some very well known accomplished players such as
Prof. Taiseer Elias (Bustan Abraham, Zeryab Trio) became worldwide famous holding Amine's oud, many years before any of today's
"best sellers".
Once, every other oud player would have or have had an oud of his and after he passed away, their prices skyrocketed, but soon stabilized around
800-1000 $, depending on the workmanship invested in the oud. Plain ouds of Amine Haddad's were lately sold here for 600-700 $ as been observed on the
local "second hand" site in Israel. Some were sold for more.
I have never had an oud of his, but my best qanoun ever is Amine's. in our last encounter in 2004, I asked him if he'd make me a new qanoun, and he
said: "for sure" ! After we concluded the deal, payments, time table etc. we shook hands and said our goodbyes.
3 months later, before the day has come for my ready new qanoun, Amine Haddad passed away at the age of 65 from a heart failure on 24.04.2004.
I never asked if anything of my planned instrument has ever been put together, or it just remained "on paper" !
It's a pity though that none of his kids or siblings has ever learned from this master anything about oud &/or qanoun making and/or how to make
wood sing !
Here's a sound sample of an Amine Haddad's oud.
The Forum should enlarge the file sizes, so we won't have to cut the taqseem to fit in the limitation of 1 MB !
Have fun
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
[file]26199[/file]Dr. Oud - 3-8-2013 at 08:22 AM
I have some Haddad ouds, but from Mahmood Haddad and Suliman Haddad. Could they be related to Amine?Mike - 3-8-2013 at 08:21 PM
There are reasons why there is a size limit for file attachments. Members used to post very large sized images, and also to limit the quality of any
music shared on the forums. Sharing CD quality MP3s would be unfair to the artists, especially if their source of income comes from CD sales.
There are many MP3 programs that allow for customizing bitrate outputs and will still allow for 5 or 6 minute tracks to be under 1MB. Alfaraby - 3-9-2013 at 02:31 PM
Thanks Mike. I downloaded one of these soft-wares for the next post.
Yours indeed
AlfarabyAlfaraby - 3-9-2013 at 02:52 PM
I have some Haddad ouds, but from Mahmood Haddad and Suliman Haddad. Could they be related to Amine?
Absolutely not !
Suliman Dawoud Haddad lived in Baghdad & Mahmood Haddad in Damascus, while Amine Haddad lived in Haifa.
Haddad ( حداد ) in Arabic is Smith, so in every village or town there must be a smith. Fairouz (Lebanon) is Nuhad Haddad, Fuad
Haddad was an Egyptian poet, Abdulhamid Haddad - Tunisian oud maker, Salloum Haddad - Syrian actor, Said Haddad - Algerian football player and coach,
Izra Haddad - Iraqi Jewish writer, Qasem Haddad - Bahraini poet, Abdallah Haddad - Palestinian poet from Haifa, Mohammad Haddad - great Egyptian
Arabic calligrapher ... etc.
Haddad also is a common family name in Hebrew, probably brought to Israel by Arab-Jewish new comers who immigrated to Palestine/Israel, before &
after 1948.
The name of the family's occupation &/or profession is very widespread in the Arab world, therefore you'd find a lot of Haddad, Najjar
(carpenter), Sayegh (jeweler), Khayyat (tailor), Khabbaz (baker), Beitar (veterinary), Hajjar & Daqqaq (stonemason), Awwad (plow maker, oud maker)
and of course the most famous name in Oudland: Nahat (sculpture).
In the Fertile Crescent, especially in Greater Syria, most of these names were given to Christian &/or Jewish Arabs, who were mostly excluded from
the Ottoman Empire state's jobs, so they turned to free professions to earn their living; thus they were nicknamed after their jobs.
Hope this was not boring
Yours indeed
AlfarabyMasel - 3-10-2013 at 03:09 AM
alfarabay it is always a pleasure to hear from your knowledge. don't stop
