David Parfitt
Oud Junkie
Posts: 629
Registered: 11-16-2003
Location: Devon, UK
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Mood: No Mood
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Frustration...and an idea
It occurred to me recently that some of the greatest oud players out there have made few or no recordings of solo oud, and how incredibly frustrating
this is. We fans often have to survive on just a few morsels and the odd video on Youtube. Names that spring to mind are Munir Nurettin Beken, Simon
Shaheen, Issa Boulos, Ali Jihad Racy, Bassem Saba, Iyad Haimour, Mehmet Bitmez, etc. No doubt the reasons for this are the costs involved with
recording CDs and the fact that pure taqsim and similar recordings are not seen as commercially viable.
I was wondering if there is anything we can do about this? Do we really need to rely on commercial recordings any more in this day and age? Many
people on this forum are in contact with some of the leading oud players out there. Could they be persuaded to record stuff on request for the forum
community? I don't know how money would be factored into this, or if it even needs to be. Am I being an idealistic fool? It would be interesting to
hear people's thoughts on whether this idea could be a realistic possibility.
All the best
David
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Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2939
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Mood: Stringish
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I think this is a great idea. There have in the past been similar "record clubs" for jazz, where members come together to fund recordings of people
who may not have the resources to make new records.
I'm not sure how this would be organized or implemented, but if there is enough interest maybe we can get something off the ground.
The good thing about solo oud is that it is relatively inexpensive to record (compared to full ensembles).
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ameer
Oud Junkie
Posts: 464
Registered: 9-14-2009
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I like it. Oud legends of the new millennium, or something. I'd love to help get it rolling if we find there's enough interest.
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1373
Registered: 11-5-2011
Location: California
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I sure like your choice of players. What a collection this would be!
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conroystoptime
Oud Maniac
Posts: 59
Registered: 2-22-2012
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In this era of crowd-sourcing tools like Kickstarter and Indie Go Go, the time is right for an idea like this.
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ALAMI
Oud Junkie
Posts: 645
Registered: 12-14-2006
Location: Beirut
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Mood: No Mood
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I agree with you David,
Once Omar Bashir, who's the friend of a friend, spent an evening at my place, think it was 5 years ago,the mood of the evening was really good and he
fell in love with my old 1892 , 5 course Arja and kept it in his arms all the time.
He played for hours, changed tuning many times to express different moods, old iraqi maqams, techniques, it was an amazing Omar Bashir that never
shows in his recordings or concerts, a great and rare oud moment, I talked to him about this forum and how many people would love to hear those
things, just oud, online for oud lovers, no money yet a good quality recording, he liked the idea but he was leaving the next morning, we agreed on a
studio session the next time he comes to Beirut...it never happened.
This small yet very well equipped (Neuman U187, SPL preamps, Protools HD)studio in Beirut is available for free, including the sound engineer, for any
master outdist who would like to have a clean recording to put for free online just for oud lovers.
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1373
Registered: 11-5-2011
Location: California
Member Is Offline
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"No money" doesn't seem to be a requirement for this to happen. Very little money? Probably.
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David Parfitt
Oud Junkie
Posts: 629
Registered: 11-16-2003
Location: Devon, UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Quote: Originally posted by ALAMI  | I agree with you David,
Once Omar Bashir, who's the friend of a friend, spent an evening at my place, think it was 5 years ago,the mood of the evening was really good and he
fell in love with my old 1892 , 5 course Arja and kept it in his arms all the time.
He played for hours, changed tuning many times to express different moods, old iraqi maqams, techniques, it was an amazing Omar Bashir that never
shows in his recordings or concerts, a great and rare oud moment, I talked to him about this forum and how many people would love to hear those
things, just oud, online for oud lovers, no money yet a good quality recording, he liked the idea but he was leaving the next morning, we agreed on a
studio session the next time he comes to Beirut...it never happened.
This small yet very well equipped (Neuman U187, SPL preamps, Protools HD)studio in Beirut is available for free, including the sound engineer, for any
master outdist who would like to have a clean recording to put for free online just for oud lovers.
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That's a very good point - I'd overlooked the fact that there are aspects of even the more often-recorded players that we don't get to see because of
commercial pressures.
David
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jack
Oud Junkie
Posts: 116
Registered: 4-5-2010
Member Is Offline
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Great idea. But since money is always an issue, I think it's reasonable to get any decent recordings made available for sale. I have purchased a ton
of solo oud on emusic.com, which is half the price of itunes, but still artist supported. I would imagine any player who put effort and time into
decent quality recordings would not just want to give them away free, and so a nice middle ground is to have them for sale on emusic or some such
site. Also, if all we're interested in is more solo oud, then a small recording device such as a Zoom could be mailed to any oud player willing to
take some time to record some pieces, and then sent back to anyone competent and willing enough to master the tracks. I imagine the recordings would
be wonderful.
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