Greg - 8-4-2005 at 06:44 PM
Most will remember the recent unfortunate posts by Samir Ibrahim (Sam311) in regard to an instrument he purchased from Nazih Ghadban.
After his banning from these forums, Mr Ibrahim moved his vitriolic attack onto the mazajy.com forums. I am happy to report that the matter has now
been settled and Mr Ibrahim was gracious in his online apology and apparently now considers Mr Ghadban as “a good friend and a good man.”
So that is a good outcome for all concerned and I think Mr Ibrahim’s public apology was both surprising and commendable.
There is still one of his previous claims that deserves to be cleared up here.
Mr Ibrahim had claimed that “my friend” Alexandre Tannous had travelled to Lebanon in order to throw a faulty buzuq "into the face of
Nazih." This story was a fabrication and Nazih Ghadban has sent me a copy of the following email he recently received from Alexandre Tannous.
Dear Nazih,
I am in a shock!!!! The whole story is wrong.
First of all, I don't know who Samir Ibrahim is and we're certainly not
friends. I don't know how he got my name. Second, the buzuq did not fall
apart.
The story is that, early this year, my friend once came over and it happened
that I had the buzuq on the couch so he wanted to try it. He doesn't play
buzuq, by the way. The buzuq slipped and fell on the floor which caused a
little dent in the back, and a tiny split between the pieces.
I took it to Najib because he would know how to repair it more than I could,
naturally. He did a great job in fixing the dent by sanded it a bit and then
he lacquered it so that it gains back the color that you gave it. But he
couldn't fix the split. So we took it to my brother thinking that he might
have an idea of how to fix it. Mind you, my brother doesn't work with
instruments. He builds and designs furniture. Inded, he had a basic idea
which worked very well. The idea was to put a strong glue between the split
pieces and to tape it shut (while applying pressure to close the split) with
masking tape. The glue dried and I removed the tape and it is still sealed
until now.
As you see, what happened to the buzuq was, obviously, not your fault, and
it didn't fall apart! It was an accident and it was fixed.
I don't know how Samir heard about this since neither my brother, or I know
him. It is possible that Najib told him about the incident and he changed
the story completely.
It is unfortunate that one would resort to saying things that are not true.
I am sorry that this had happened to you. You may use this reply to defend
your reputation if you need to.
Thank you, once again, for doing a great job. I have been telling other
musicians about how great it was working with in designing this buzuq and
how much you were open in taking suggestion and requests from me. Also, I
speak highly of your work and craftsmanship.
Truly,
Alexandre