Jeffrey Werbock - Bringing Mugham to the West

For 35 years Jeffrey Werbock has been enthralling and informing western audiences on the unknown art culture of Azerbaijan and its enchanting traditional music called mugham. This video clip offers a sampling of Mr. Werbocks work at various universities and academies in the USA.
Performed on native instruments tar, kemancha and oud Jeffrey Werbock's rendering of Azerbaijani mugham always leaves a deep impression on the audiences.
For more information go to www.mugham.org

[@2000Nargizz]

EXCELLENT!! AZERBAIJANI MUGAM IS THE BEST !! JEFFREY WERBOCK is one of the few Western interpreters of the highly complex music of Azerbaijan. Known for his delicate and subtle performance, he has introduced audiences throughout the world to the microtonal, improvised musical tradition of Mugham. For more than 12 years he studied aurally in the traditional manner with Zevulon Avshalamov, acknowledged as one of the great masters of Azerbaijani music. Werbock has performed throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East and has appeared on Azerbaijani radio and television. In 2001 Jeffrey Werbock was awarded an honorary degree from the Azerbaijani State Academy of Music and in 2002 was chosen to serve as official host and presenter for the Azerbaijani portion of the Smithsonian Institute´s Silk Road Festival. As a recognized expert on Azerbaijani Mugham Werbock lectures and performs widely. "Azerbaijan is the last great secret of world cultures. And it is my job, my pleasure to make sure that everybody knows about Azerbaijan," Werbock said before his performance. He began with improvisations of Shur Mugham on the oud, or barbad as Werbock prefers to call it. Then the delicate sound of the oud was replaced with the mournful strains of the kamancha. Werbock played Bayati-Shiraz on the tar, which is well suited to expressing the melancholy and nostalgia of love. And at the end he played Shushter on the kamancha. In his fluent Azerbaijani Werbock said "Şüştər çox incə və sakitdir" ("Shushter is very delicate and peaceful"). The harmony of the music wove its web of attraction over audience and performer alike. Nobody wanted to wake from the sweet dream created by the musician´s skilful performance of Mugham. "The arm of Azerbaijani music was so strong that it reached distant America and brought me here," Werbock said at the end. "I am the first, but I believe that there will be many more who will know and feel the power of Mugham."

[@КенульНН]

Teşekkürler, çox gözel👏👏👏

[@Malish777Ka]

Mr. Werbock, thank you very much for being such an incredible person and for loving and promoting the true spirit of the music of Azerbaijan. You deserve the highest appreciation of the Azerbaijnani nation. Our deepest respect to you, sir.

[@Iskrovskij]

Мне кажется, что азербайджанское правительство должно его наградить обязательно за его вклад в распространение азерб. культуры.

[@nuranayutub]

Ürəyinizə sağlıq , çox təşəkkür edirəm bir Azərbaycanlı olaraq🧡

[@eldar2036]

Bravo !

[@thepacific_ocean]

that's great to see somes want to spread and introduce this amazing music culture to the world..!!.Thanks warmly mr Jeffrey!

[@muradasgarov8126]

Halaldi sene, menim eziz dostum Jeffrey. Ellerin agrimasin

[@qabilceferov2561]

Thank you Mister ...

[@qrbiazrbaycan8287]

Thank you.

[@lesleyelalami2562]

Primordial, hypnotic, magnetic, ethereal. Produces the same effect as Mullah's call to prayer from mosques. You cannot not pay attention to it's effects. Feeds the soul. x

[@eldenizdeniz6890]

Allah sizden razi olsun! Halal olsun!

[@a83874]

Thank you !

[@illuminator8712]

AZƏRBAYCAN dövlət və milliyyət olaraq Jeffrey Werbock-un xidmətlərini qeyd etməli, onun haqqını verməlidir. SAĞ OLUN, CƏNAB WERBOCK

[@ALV--sp6un]

BRAVO !!!

[@asian1370]

💞💞💞

[@y25151956]

trying to explain mugham is like trying to explain a joke. you can disect it but then u kill it. mugham comes from the heart

[@natavan1987]

the best part of it ;) Seriously, its well known that the so-called Persian empire was ruled for many hundreds of years by Turk and Farsi speaking Azeri Safavids and later Gajars. Both of these musical forms derives from more ancient arabic maqqam, which itself comes from even more ancient Egyptian past. Also Central Asia made a major contributions for this music as well as North Indian raga

[@Ayleen_Hazar]

Прекрасные люди в зале, они открыты к восприятию искусства. Это так трогательно! Столько красивых людей, способных чувствовать и сопережевиать, просто сокровище❤

[@azerbaycam1165]

Siz dunyevi insansiniz sizi cox ama cox maraqla izleyirem sebebse mugama olan duyumunuzdandir

[@MrAllaman15]

Nach meine Meinung ist es die Notwendigkeit,dass Aziza Mustafazade zusammen mit Jeffrey Werbock ein Konzert machen sollen,sogar mussen! :)

[@azerbaycan152]

Ela

[@vusala9373]

CHOKH SAGH OLUN

[@araz239]

Natavan1987,,, i would like to tell you few things: 1- the safavids were Turkish speaking not Frasi!!! the king of safavid shah Ismayil has many poets only in turkish and the official language of the kingdom in this period was Turkish... In Qajars period they tended to use Farsi as a language to document the orders but anyway the spoken language of the royal family and also most of the people and specially the army was Turkish.

[@araz239]

2- Noboday cant deny the impact of the neibour nations culture and art on the others but you should consider that in Azerbaijan there is an ancient type of music which is played by Ashiq or Ozan. This type of music is almost unique and belongs to the turkish nations. If you listen to this type of music and also mugam you can notice the great impact of this music on mugam. Besides there are folk songs, dances and many other variants of music that makes the Azerbaijan mugam more richer and unique.

[@arastoomii4305]

hi , saol! btw, guitar doesn't come from tar. tar probably comes from safavid chahar-tar or panj-tar or shash-tar. guitar probably has some influence from the lute. you could say that lute comes from oud... al-Oud --> Lute the name greek word kithara became arabic qithara and then it was reintroduced to europe through andalusia with that name so today you get guitar.

[@jwerbock]

The point was that the tar, which predates the guitar, makes use of the double chamber concept, which allows a much smaller body to produce a very large sound. Perhaps you know that the word "tar" in Farsi means string, or that which has strings. It's hard to ignore that the Farsi word for string is found in the English word guitar, speculations about Greek origins notwithstanding

[@yoldaskuryer9441]

Antient greek culture impressedİranian culture during Hellinistik era after Alexandr Great. Exuse my bad İnglish.

[@Джаваншир.Ахмед]

halaldı ....muğamımızı belə tədqiqat ediblərsə..gör Amerikanın kəşviyatı necə işləyir.!!!

[@haades33]

I would love it if he had mentioned that Azeri music has been separated from Iranian music only for the last 150 years. The Tar is the main instrument in Iranian or Persian music. I don't consider Azeri and Iranian music separated but watching this music you get the impression that Azer music is something amazing (which is true) going back to the dawn of time. Azeri music in that respect (not what has been added/eliminated from it recently) is just a part of Persian music

[@jwerbock]

More likely, so-called "Persian" music, which evolved during Azeri speaking rulers of Safavid and Qajar dynasties (they also spoke Farsi of course) and Azerbaijani music, both have a common origin, most likely Arabic, as the word "maqqam" the obvious source for the Farsi pronounciation of "magham" or Azeri pronounciation of "mugham", means a place or station, probably in reference to the frame of mind that this music ushers us into...

[@zemfiramuslimova7534]

bunu Dolinaya göndərin!!!

[@SuperAzerbaijan2012]

Деффрейя бизим довлетимиз диггет етирмелидир.Деффри Азери медениятин теблиг едир америкада

[@nureddinabbasov2373]

В 2008 году о мугам, являющийся одним из самых ярких достояний азербайджанской культуры, был объявлен ЮНЕСКО шедевром устного и нематериального культурного наследия человечества. Высочайшее мастерство наших мастеров мугама покоряет сердца слушателей по всему миру. Американец Джеффри Вербок 35 лет посвятил изучению искусства азербайджанского мугама и его популяризации на Западе. Очарованный его изысканностью и красотой, он считает своей миссией донести информацию о нем до как можно большего числа людей в мире, выступая с лекциями, снимая документальные фильмы. Посмотрите на лица американских студентов, послушайте, что они говорят о глубоком эмоциональном воздействии мугама, которое они испытали при прослушивании.

[@azeriazeri3585]

SAĞ OL JEFFREY .SİZ AZERBAYCAN MÜSİQİSİNİ VƏ ALƏTLƏRİNİ ORDA TƏBLİQ EDİRSİNİZ

[@CripsAz]

Yesterday I was at his home. great person! Thank You Jeffrey!!!

[@MilesCentury]

Look at the people who witness him it si amazing their reaction ...... I PROUD WITH MY LAND AZERBAIJAN

[@podvodniy112233]

Thank you MR Werbock!!!

[@delidag]

Hello. That is wonderfull. Thanks for nice vodeo

[@bayramvaliyev2670]

Love, respect and greetings to Jeffrey from Azerbaijan

[@vuqarhuseynli4989]

THANK YOU MİSTER VİRBOC... TƏŞŞƏKER EDİRƏM SİZƏ CƏNAB VERBAK. SİZ ÇOX SƏMİMİ VƏ DÜRÜST İNSANSINIZ! ALLAH SİZƏ SAĞLAM, UZUN VƏ XOŞBƏXT BİR ÖMÜR VERSİN!

[@azerbaycam1165]

Biz azerbaycan turkleri sevinirikki turk medeniyyetini oyrenirsiniz mugam misiqinin sahidir