Ari Babakhanov

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ari Babakhanov, born in 1934, is a musician from Bukhara who plays the long-necked lutes tanbur, qashqari rubab and dutar. He comes from a Jewish family with a famous musical tradition. His grandfather Levi Babakhan, who lived from 1873 to 1926, was the legendary court singer of Alim Khan, the last emir of Bukhara. His father Moshe Babakhanov, from 1910 to 1983, was also a famous singer and accompanied himself on tanbur and doira. Unlike them, Ari became a pure instrumentalist.

Music and breakthrough

He studied under the European curriculum at the conservatory in Tashkent and graduated in 1959. Under Soviet policy the traditional instruments could still be used, but mainly for European repertoire. After his successes in Tashkent he returned to Bukhara and taught at the music school for forty years. With the help of his father and other musicians he slowly found his way back to the classical music of Bukhara, the Shashmaqam. He made it his life's task to preserve this art, and wrote down a great amount of music. In 1991 he founded the Shashmaqam Ensemble at the Bukhara Philharmonic, which grew from ten to nineteen members. In 1998 the CD Shashmaqam: The Tradition of Bukhara appeared.

Influence

After the independence of Uzbekistan the Jewish community of Bukhara largely left, and Babakhanov moved to Germany with his family. He is regarded as the keeper of the Shashmaqam.

Listening