Nizar Rohana is a Palestinian oud player of the highest standards. His mastery of the Arab lute is phenomenal. His grasp of the intricacies of traditional Arab forms is masterful. When one hear his re-tuning of his often too delicate instrument in the middle of a performance, one feels it as part of the song – and one to be part of its whole, waiting.
Nizar Rohana was born in the village of ‘Esefya on Mount Carmel in 1975. He began his musical education at an early age and playing the Oud by the age of fifteen, and in 1996 he moved to Jerusalem to take up academic studies. Focusing his research on the music of the great Egyptian Composer Mohammad el-Qasabji, Rohana completed his Masters Degree in Musicology 2006. Today Nizar Rohana is a prominent Oud player in the Palestinian musical scene and he performs regularly for local and international audiences.
and this.
May All that is Good grant us such skill.
6 Comments
If you have spotify, you can hear the album here:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6dcrHNwEJDGu6gi4knwgny
Excellent, David T!
Many thanks.
and if we’re talking about palestinian oud players, you should certainly know about the amazing adel salameh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmz8938RdI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zyu5p8vnc
for those who prefer a more iraqi styley, i recommend the wonderful london-based ehsan al-emam, who i have had the privilege of sharing the stage with a couple of times, although i’d be embarrassed to play oud in front of him!
you might also like the group “alcazaba”, who combine indian, arabian and flamenco styles and include one of my own teachers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJAIFpNs6w
b’shalom
bananabrain
I didn’t know you too where an ‘oud player, BB!
Writes a clarinet player:
Perhaps one day we will be able to play together – although I am truly the world’s most abysmal ‘oud player. So bad I have been thinking of switching to the qanun – just because I want to really punish myself with one of the most difficult instruments of all.
I have a loud Egyptian oud – if you are into the Iraqi stylee, do you have one of those excellent Iraqi ouds?
adel salameh has done some very interesting stuff with clarinet, you know. anyway, i tell you what, i can’t find a qanun player in london other than top-notch bods like abdullah chhadeh and the bass player of burning bush. i’d considered it myself, as i also play piano, but the oud’s such a bugger to tune (and even the top pros say so, i have that from no less than the iraqi-israeli maestro yair dalal – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBfyv_Cfsds) that i’ve got enough to cope with as it is. my main oud is turkish, as that is probably the most appropriate for the sort of stuff i do, although i learnt on a vintage egyptian one which i have for some months been trying to flog to david t, but i’m not sure his wife approves the purchase!
b’shalom
bananabrain
ahahahaha!
I’ve got my eye on a very nice and simple Bahraini oud with a big voice. Hmmm, perhaps I can try to flog my old oud to Faisal?
String instruments are a bit of an unknown territory for me. I am happy with something with a reed in the top that you can blow down. The Turkish style of clarinet playing is very interesting – although the tremolo and tone-bending would have made my long since past-away clarinet teacher go spare.
From him I learned, however, the joys of Klezmer clarinet (he argued that one might make one’s way at weddings with such skills!). A bit of an eccentric, he once bought in a late 18th Century boxwood clarinet for me to play with. His collection was vast – and was the source of many rows between him and his wife. So, I would be careful about David and the oud!
Happy days, however. He once nearly played with Benny Goodman – but Goodman insisted that he brought his own band. You can, however, hear my clarinet teacher on Ray Noble’s 1933 hit “Love is the sweetest thing”, playing alto sax. He played with Noble’s big band for much of the ’30s and ’40s.
Tragically, he developed Parkinson’s in later life. He taught me without being able to play a note himself.
May he play on in a better place.