Miscellaneous The Doudouk

[XasGotan]

I would like to invite comments and contributions on this remarkable Armenian double reed instrument. In particular, I would like to know if you know of any uses of it in fusion, jazz or genres other than Armenian folk music. Here an example of its hauntingly beautiful sound:

 

[altissimo]

Didier Malherbe plays one with the Hadouk Trio - http://youtu.be/3tU28_jtXmI

 

[AlanB]

Yes, Didier Malherbe is your man. He is with the Hadouk Trio. He and Steve Shehaan (percussionist) are friends of our band and have been out to Laos to play with us in some of our local venues. Didier is a saxophonist and an expert Doudouk player, especially in it application in jazz. He really makes it sing in his Hadouk Trio stuff. I would love to get my hands on a Doudouk - it is a wonderful sounding instrument. Didier also plays the khaen or khene which is a traditional Lao instrument a bit like a reeded pan pipe. http://habsfans.lemultiblog.com/Didier-Malherbe-jouant-du-Khen-orgue-a-bouche-_-74peqcBy2SQ.html
Cheers,
Alan

 

[aldevis]

Let's not forget the great Leslie Nielsen

http://conmurphy.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/djivan-gasparyan-portrait-soul-of.html

 

[Dave McLaughlin]

Didier Malherbe? Gong? That takes me back about 30 years!

 

[dooce]

I posted a link to a band called SANS recently which features Tigran Aleksanyan on duduk. I saw them in concert, like REALLY close up. I was sat about 2 metres away from Tigran on a tiny stool that was the only place left to sit in the room, so I got to see his skills at very close quarters. Some of the songs they played were 15 minutes long and the instrument was used mostly as a sort of burbling background - it never left his mouth and the notes never stopped - phenomenal circular breathing technique. I must admit, I was entranced - I had never heard of the duduk/doudouk before but it has an exquisite sound and obviously requires some advanced skills to play well.

Link to SANS - also featuring an english zither player, aussie sax, and finnish singer - about as "fusion" as it gets....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4bg9zEdhKU

 

[Nick Wyver]

Let's not forget the great Leslie Nielsen

http://conmurphy.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/djivan-gasparyan-portrait-soul-of.html

))

A talented chap. Mariachi too:

Er, sorry. went a bit off piste there. Back to the doudouk.

Hadouk trio - excellent. I think I first saw Bloomdido Bad de Grass a tad over 40 years ago.

 

[baritonesax]

I would like to invite comments and contributions on this remarkable Armenian double reed instrument. In particular, I would like to know if you know of any uses of it in fusion, jazz or genres other than Armenian folk music. Here an example of its hauntingly beautiful sound:

I love the sound of the duduk. So much so that I bought one a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I don't make a hauntingly beautiful sound on it. It's of course down to the fact that I've never had a lesson (and wouldn't know where to start looking for one), and also I suspect that neither of the reeds I got for it are that good either. Good playing technique demands that you puff out your cheeks, so it goes somewhat against the grain of everything we've been taught.

It's a rather limited instrument though, compared to modern western woodwinds - with a very narrow range of about an octave, as I recall. A serious duduk player will have several of them pitched in different keys, The "standard" duduk is in A.

But it is a very beautiful instrument nonetheless.