OGHLAN BAKHSHI

Turkmen dutar and bardic singing
Providence, Rhode Island

When you listen to Turkmen music, you can hear a spiritual dimension rising from the nomadic history of the Turkmen, says virtuoso Oghlan Bakhshi. The guttural singing of the bardic songs brings the sounds of nature to the stage, while the strumming of the dutar reflects horse hooves crossing the steppe. Many people haven’t heard this music, since it is rarely played outside of the region the Turkmen call home–northern Iran, Turkmenistan, and northwest Afghanistan. Oghlan Bakhshi was raised in a family of musicians in northern Iran, and has made it his goal to bring the little-heard music of the Turkmen to the world. Playing together with dutar player and bard Zyyada Jumayeva, he honors the centuries-old traditions while bringing a new approach to the music. 

Going back hundreds of years, the Turkmen musical tradition uses the epic poems and literature from the 18th and 19th centuries as the basis for the bardic songs. Although originating in the nomadic experiences of the Turkmen in Central Asia, today the music straddles that with the contemporary settled culture. The bakhshi singers have a vast repertoire comprising hundreds of songs that tell romantic and heroic stories. The singers are most often accompanied by the ghyjak spiked fiddle and two-stringed dutar lute. To become a bakhshi, a musician undergoes years of study followed by a blessing from a master musician to be allowed to perform solo. Bards don’t just copy a master’s technique, though, they have to be able to distinguish themselves as individual artists. 

Oghlan Bakhshi began playing music at the age of six, and grew up hearing his mother singing Turkmen songs at home and his father Adbol-Ghaffar Geldi Nejad playing the ghyjak. Bakhshi began taking dutar lessons and accompanying his father to play at weddings, birthdays, and other performances. Soon, he was blessed by elder musicians and granted the title Oghlan Bakhshi, meaning child bard. Not many people his age were interested in Turkmen music in Iran, he says, so he and his father established a private music school to carry on the tradition. In 2008, he won Best Artist Award at the International Folklore Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, and in 2009, he moved to Turkmenistan to study music at the D.Ovezov musical college. From there, he traveled to Turkey, playing with Turkish musicians and experimenting with Turkic world music. Oghlan Bakhshi realized there was no Turkmen music played at folk festivals across the world, and in 2013, he received a blessing from his elders to introduce their music onto the global stage. When he released his album Journey Across the Steppes in 2023, it was the first time in 30 years there had been a global release of Turkmen music.

Guest artist Zyyada Jumayeva was raised in Turkmenistan, studied at the Turkmen National Conservatory in Ashgabat, and represents the female bardic tradition of Turkmen music. Singing with the two-string dutar, she explores the lament songs that tell of women’s experiences. The female Turkmen bardic tradition is even less well-known, and Jumayeva passes it on through performance and teaching. Together, Oghlan Bakhshi and Zyyada Jumayeva are introducing the world to the dynamic music of the Turkmen. 

Artist website and social media:

oghlanbakhshi.com
facebook.com/oghlanbakhshi
instagram.com/oghlanbakhshi
youtube.com/@TheOghlanbakhshi

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