Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

American musician Gabriel Marin has posted a video on Facebook, in which he plays on Azerbaijan's folk music instrument kamancha.

The video caused a great resonance in the social network.

"With so much focus on the new album and my new guitar the acoustic stuff can get neglected so occasionally I gotta break one out and show it some love between teaching lessons," the musician wrote.

Multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Marin "boasts insane chops, impeccable time, mastery of diverse traditional scales, rare fretless guitar fluency, and a gift for manipulating effects," (Premier Guitar Magazine).

Called "the guiding light for his generation of six-stringers" by The Buffalo Times, He is "A fretless guitar virtuoso whose microtonal adventures rival those of many eastern musicians, and a talent for rhythm and nuttiness" (Bass Musician Magazine).

Gabriel Marin has studied and performed music from North and South India, Iran, the Balkans, Turkey and Central Asia, as well as western classical music and avant-garde jazz.

As one of the few players to explore the fretless guitar and MIDI guitar, he has found a truly unique and expressive voice.

He is a founding member of internationally renowned fusion band Consider the Source. In addition to Guitar, Gabriel is versed in dutar, dombra, tanbour, balta saz, and kamancha.

Kamancha is bowed string instrument, which is widespread amongst Eastern and Central Asian peoples under a variety of names.

Through their music, performers convey many themes, from the mythological to the gnostic and the comic.

The musical instrument is described in the works of medieval classical poets. Mir Seyid Ali, representative of the 16th-century school of painting, depicted the barbat (lute), daf ( frame drum) and kamancha in his work called "A Musical Gathering".

Art of crafting and playing with Kamantcheh/Kamancha, a bowed string musical instrument, was included into the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The decision was made at the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage taking place at the island's International Convention Center on December 4-9, 2017.

The appeal for the inclusion of kamancha in UNESCO list was jointly made by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to UNESCO, as well as the Iranian side.

To watch video, please visit:

https://www.facebook.com/GabrielMarinMusic/videos/154898385128662/

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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