"World Percussionists" Series - Mohammad Reza Mortazavi

My dear friend, colleague and mentor Alex Acuna turned me on recently to this amazing Iranian percussionist. I’d not only never heard of him, I wasn’t familiar with this percussion instrument - the Tombak.

At the age of just 20 Mohammad Reza Mortazavi was considered by many as the world’s best Tombak player. He developed over 30 new striking and finger techniques and revolutionized the traditional way of playing.

Mohammad’s playing just blew me away. Totally different than other techniques I’ve seen and inspired me so much. I’m thankful to Alex for turning me on to him. Alex continually seeks out new talent around the world and coming up in this series, I’ll feature a few more guys Alex has hipped me to! I highly recommend you learn more about Mohammad and look for his solo recordings and live performances!

Here’s a link to one of his amazing shows…click on the image below.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi