Sayed Ali Asghar Kurdistani

About Sayed Ali Asghar Kurdistani

Sayed Ali Asghar Kurdistani was a Kurdish vocalist from the Sanandaj region and one of the first Kurdish singers whose voice was ever recorded. He was born in the village of Salavat-Abad near Sanandaj into a well-known religious family. His birth year is uncertain: it is usually given as 1882, but other sources say 1881, and Persian accounts based on oral tradition place it in the late 1870s. He died in the mid-1930s. Most sources give 1936, while Sorani Wikipedia dates his death to February 1937.

Kurdistani was admired for the range and agility of his voice and for a style that was entirely his own. Accounts of his singing describe fast, delicate ornaments in the high register, phrases that settle downward at the cadence, and a preference for melisma and sliding notes. This set him apart from the Persian radif while staying close to Kurdish vocal practice. His repertoire included both free-rhythm avaz and metred songs.

Around 1930 he recorded a set of discs for the Polyphon company. Accounts differ on whether the sessions took place in Tehran or in Sanandaj, and only a dozen or so sides are known to survive. Those recordings, later collected on CD by Mahoor Records, are a rare window onto Kurdish singing before the age of radio. The Sanandaj singer and songwriter Abbas Kamandi wrote a book about his life, and Kurdistani is remembered as the first great name of the Sanandaj singing tradition.

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