Akbar Haydarov

Akbar Haydarov (Akbarqori hafiz) was born on 5 January 1893 in Margilan. He learned singing and the dutar from his father, Haydar hafiz, mastered Quran recitation at a school of reciters, and later learned the big ashula and the tanbur.

He lived in Tashkent and took part in the “Sharqiya” evenings and concerts with other hafizes. From 1927 he worked as a singer and instrumentalist at the Uzbek radio committee. He took part in the decade of Uzbek art in Moscow, performed for builders of the Great Fergana Canal, the Farhad hydropower plant and other sites, and for soldiers during the Second World War. In the 1930s, with Qayum Shobaratov, he founded the “Nafosat” tea house at the Tashkent Orda.

He had a high, refined and clear tenor. His repertoire includes big ashulas (“Bir kelib ketsun”, “Yovvoyi Ushshoq”, “Adashganman”), ashulas and Fergana–Tashkent maqom melodies (“Bayot”, “Ushshoq”); he created the melodies “Munojot” and “Choli Iroq”. He was named People's Hafiz in 1939. He died in Tashkent on 13 February 1964.

His repertoire also includes “Ey, chehrasi tobonim”, “Suvora”, “Girya” and “Fargonacha Shahnoz”. For many years he performed together with Turgun Karimov. His gramophone recordings were made in the 1930s–1950s, and V. Uspensky notated some of his big ashulas in the 1940s.