(Ostad Hosain Tehrani) the very great master of tonbak and the father of modern tonbak, was born in 1912 in Tehran. Once that he had gone to zourkhaneh (Persian traditional gymnasium) he felt that he loved the tonbak of the morshed (Morshed is the singer and tonbak player of zourkhaneh that leads the athletes to practise marshal art in zourkhaneh. Morshed literally means spiritual guide.) So when he went back to their house, he made a hole at the end of a clay vase and covered the bigger mouth with skin and started playing his first strokes of tonbak on it. When his father was at work, he was able to practice in a room. But after some days the neighbors complained to his father that sound of Hosain's tonbak was tormenter. So he stopped practicing at home and started playing tonbak in the train (at that time it was called in Iran 'vagon-e-asbi' for people. .. Even he studied the style of the gypsy tonbak players (tonbaknavazan-e-doregard). In 1972, though he was ill, he recorded his last performance, rhythms of zourkhaneh. He was acquainted with 'radif' repertoire of Persian art music and 'tasnif' (rhythmic compositions of Persian vocal music). He was kind, smiling, chic (I should explain that he lost one of his eyes while he was working in a technical workshop in his youth and because of this he was always wearing a smoked glasses), self-possessed and witty. Unfortunately after a long indisposition, he passed in Feb. 25th, 1974..

Hussian Tehrani

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