Jalil Shahnaz

Jalil Shahnāz (Persian: جلیل شهناز) (May 22, 1921, Isfahan, Iran - June 17, 2013, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian classical musician and legendary tar player. Jalil Shahnaz was born in the glorious and artsy city of Isfahan, Iran. His father had an eager interest in Persian traditional music and his house was a warm faculty to all traditional music lovers at that time. His other son, Hossein also played the tar charmingly professional. Jalil’s father was his main supporter in playing this original Persian musical instrument early on; therefore Jalil began practicing having his brother as tutor. It was almost at this time that Jalil, Hossein and the Tar became like intimate companions. Every time Hossein hugged the tar to play, Jalil was always near, watching his brother’s cunning hand like a manic lover yearning for his childhood fantasies and quenching his thirst upon it. The childhood period was done and there came the juvenile years. Every day as Jalil returned home from school, he went straight to his brother humbly asking him to play the tar and he was always welcomed by Hossein’s modest response as he taught him professionally. After a while Jalil came to Tehran and found his way to the radio, gradually leading him to participate in various orchestras as well as the prominent radio program “Golha” (meaning Flowers, a popular musical radio show in the pre-Islamic-Revolution era of Iran) and became one of its major solo players at that time. Aside from playing the tar as his professional instrument, Jalil Shanhnaz is also familiar with the violin, dulcimer and tombak (Persian goblet drum) and plays them enticingly. His solo works and specially “Golha's” are among the greatest musical works in Persian music. Jalil Shahnaz has been accompanied by some of the authorities of persian traditional music such as Faramarz Payvar, Habibollah Badiee, Parviz Yahaghi, Homayoun Khorram, Ali Tajvidi, Mansour Saremi, Reza Varzandeh, Jahangir Malek, Asadollah Malek, Hassan Kasaei, Mohammad Mousavi, Jalal Taj Esfahani, Esmaeil Adib khansari, Mahmood Mahmoodi Khansari, Abdolvahab Shahidi, Akbar Golpayegani, Hossein Khajeh Amiri and Mohammad Reza Shajarian. Mohammad Reza Shajarian named his most recent musical group "Shahnaz" in honor of maestro Shahnaz. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.