Jonathan - 3-31-2006 at 08:35 AM
Somebody recently emailed me this cool pic of Agapios Tomboulis (Roza Eskanazi's oud player). A pretty amazing oudist, and a great picture.
But, the question he asked was if I knew who made the oud. I have no idea. He was born in the 1890s, and died in 1965. It's got that cool, classic,
Manol/Hamza look to it, but I have no idea. Figured somebody out here would know.
Jonathan - 3-31-2006 at 08:49 AM
And, heck, here are a couple of more I am curious about, both being played by Hrant.
Jonathan - 3-31-2006 at 08:52 AM
I guess I am a bit obsessed with Hrant. Here is another picture. I don't know if this is the same oud that he used on that "lesson" cd put out on
Traditional Crossroads (awesome) or not.
If anybody out there has any live tapes of this guy, please let me know. I have a few, but not a whole lot. I would certainly be willing to trade
with anybody.
At one point, I was thinking about researching a discography on Hrant. It is tough. He did a lot of work we was pretty much a "sideman". When you
think you have a handle on what he released, you find some obscure old 78 where he is featured somewhere in the mix.
oudman - 3-31-2006 at 09:03 AM
Jonathan
Did you see this one?
Jonathan - 3-31-2006 at 07:22 PM
Very cool. Thanks
Multi Kulti - 4-1-2006 at 01:54 AM
Here you can see a very nice collection of Agapios Toboulis' fotos...
He plays a cümbüs style instrument too... (it reminds me the AHENK from Mr. Cengiz Sarikus).
http://www.rebetiko.gr/photosgal.asp?person_id=159
Nikos
billkilpatrick - 4-1-2006 at 09:25 AM
jonathan - to my shame i have to say i'd never heard of udi hrant before. in the wikipedia entry on him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udi_Hrant_Kenkulian
... it says he introduced such things as multidirectional picking and double stops. can that be right? did no one before him pick up as well as down
or make two finger chords? it also says he introduced left-hand pizzicato. i assume that mean "hammering" and ... again ... is there no
documentation to suggest that someone might have done this before?
perplexed - bill
SamirCanada - 4-1-2006 at 11:26 AM
Bill wikipedia is updated by people on the internet. So if you wanted to add a definition to udi hrant or anyother topic you could do so.. so its not
to be taken has absolute truth since... anyone could say what he wants on there.
Doesnt mean its not true... I have no idea if it is or not.
Just letting you know how it could be...
Andy - 4-1-2006 at 07:18 PM
Does anyone know of any recordings of Agapios Tomboulis? I recall something on ebay maybe a year or so ago.
Multi Kulti - 4-1-2006 at 08:25 PM
Andy
Tomboulis was the main oud-player of Roza Eskenazi.So he plays in almost every song of her.
There are unfortunately very few instrumental pieces with him...
I uploaded 2 songs...
The first is my favourite.Only oud,violin and his voice but very powerful playing.
http://rapidshare.de/files/16997201/Tompoulis-Aysem.mp3.html
The second a bit more classical..
http://rapidshare.de/files/16997069/Tompoulis-Aski_Bana.mp3.html
Nikos
Jonathan - 4-3-2006 at 04:37 PM
Bill, I have no idea if it is true or not, either. I wish I knew more about the history of the music.
To me, he has a pretty distinctive way of playing, including all of the techniques you mentioned, as well as others. At times, he tuned the pairs of
strings on his oud in octaves, for example. There are times he seems to be playing passages solely with the left hand--not just little hammer ons and
pull offs here and there, but phrases. And, to my ears, he puts a lot of vibrato on the notes--really just gets the most out of each note.
An incredible composer, as well.
I would love to see a video of Hrant, but I don't think any exists--I hope I am wrong on that one.