Abraham Salman (born Shaharabani) was a qanun virtuoso, one of the finest players of this instrument in the Middle East. Blind from the age of two, he studied music as a child in Baghdad’s school for blind Jewish children. The school was established in the 1920s and many of the students who showed musical talent were taught to become musicians in order to secure their livelihood.
Salman became a member of the Baghdad Radio Orchestra and a favored accompanist of some of Iraqi's best-known Arab singers. Salman immigrated to Israel in 1950 and was a prominent member of the Israel Broadcast Authority’s Oriental music orchestra until his retirement in the late 1980s. His virtuosity was also idiomatic, and he performed in a variety of genres, from the local Iraqi maqam to the cosmopolitan Egyptian-styled tarab along with classical Western music repertoire arranged for qanun. He also composed music for films and participated in several genre-bending recordings. Among such projects were his celebrated collaboration with the Israeli rocker Danny Sanderson and the Kaveret Ensemble in the song 'The left-handed octopus' ('Ha-tamnun ha-iter') in the album Poogy in a Pita. His partnership with Sanderson continued with the solo hit “What’s up with your show-offing?” ('Ma ha-daween shelakh'), Sanderson's 1984 take on the then-emerging genre of Israeli 'Oriental' pop (musika mizrahit; aka Mediterranean Israeli music).
More updated and detailed biographical information about Abraham Salman is provided in the 2022 article by Jonah Nelson and Esther Warkov, both of whom had dedicated unfailing efforts to safeguard the legacy of this legendary Iraqi-Jewish musician.
Selection of Abraham Salman's Recordings and Documents Online
- Playlist of 123 clips (YouTube, August 2022) about Abraham Salman curated by Jonah Nelson, a most definitive audio-visual resource.
- Private recording by Esther Warkov in Salman’s home with violinist Simon Shaheen. Includes four samai-s and four exceptional taqasim, 1980. Read more about this rare musical encounter here.
- Rare recordings of Abraham Salman with fellow Iraqi-Jewish musicians Joseph Rabiah and Yaqub al-'Amari compiled by Esther Warkov from recordings by Kol Israel available at the NLI sound archive. This compilation includes two rare taqasim on the 'ud played by Salman (maqam bayat and siga, recorded 1970) Then follow six taqasim on the qanun: nakriz (1970), hijaz kar (1964), ajam (1961), zanjuwan (1964), suznak (1961), and nahawand (1973).
- At minute 32:16 of the same recording we hear the Prelude and Rondo for Qanun and Orchestra by the distinguished Romanian-Israeli composer and conductor Laszlo (Ladislau) Roth. The piece was composed in or before 1983, as it was broadcasted on the Israeli Radio on October 2, 1983 (announcement in the newspaper Davar of the same day, page 7). A fine example of the persistent Oriental stream in Israel art music, this piece represents an electrifying encounter between two exceptional exiled Jewish musicians coming from different ends of the musical spectrum (Romania and Iraq respectively) collaborating in the creation of an original Israeli amalgam. Undoubtedly Salman learned the piece by heart, demonstrating his amazing musical dexterity in the full integration of his qanun with the symphony orchestra.
- The same recorded compilation is followed on 37:49 by Joseph Rabiah (a blind Iraqi-Jewish musician) taqsim rast on cello (1970) and ends with an outstanding Iraqi maqam performed by Yaqub al-'Amari.
- A short excerpt of a film about Abraham Salman (in Hebrew).
- Saltana. A complete CD of Abraham Salman's recordings produced by Nada Records, 1997.
- Saltana ll, A compilation of Abraham Salman's taqasim: Taqsim Bayat Mawzoun; Taqsim Kurd; Taqsim Rast; The last taqasim; Taqsim Bayat Shuri; Taqsim Bambi; Taqsim Saba; Taqsim Shuri Bambi; Taqsim Suznak; Taqsim; Taqsim Rast in Turkish Style
- Yadkha 'ashat, an example of the collaboration between Abraham Salman and one of the most distinguished religious singers of Israel, Moshe Habousha, singing a muwashshah.
Literature
Shohat, Ella. (2008). “The Buena Vista Baghdad Club.” In Jewish Topographies: Visions of Space, Traditions of Place. Brauch Julia, Anna Lipphardt and Alexandra Nocke, eds. Aldershot, UK & Burlington, VT: Ashgate P. 314-317.
Jewish Professional Musicians in Iraq and Israel, Revisited by Esther Warkov.
Kanoon player Abraham Salman dies, Obituary in Point of No Return.
ראה את הצלילים' בבלוג חרסונסקי מיוסיק'
.מת אברהם סלמן, נגן הקאנון של תזמורת קול ישראל בערבית', בן שלו, עיתון הארץ'
