Udi Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian

My search to find a good oud artist took me a while because I was trying to find an artist, whose music didn't sound like the music of previous oud artists featured in my blog posts. I find Udi Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian's approach to playing the oud very original because he combines oud music with dane tunes, so that his music is more fast-paced.


Udi Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian was born to Armenian parents in Massachusetts. His style of oud music as a child was influenced by George Mgrditchian & Richard Hagopian, who played in his local clubs every weekend. He mastered the Armenian dance hall repertoire as a teenager and began to try other styles, especially the jazz music of the 1960s. He was so musical he started to play other instruments and he found that he had a particular skill for woodwind instruments. When he studied jazz theory and composition at the  Berklee College of Music in Boston, he was also part of a gig playing at a Greek taverna, so he became well acquainted with the pan-Hellenic dance repertoire.

Amazon don't sell his music in mp3 format but you can find the mp3 version of his album on iTunes. Nevertheless if you'd like a copy of his album from Amazon, you can find it by clicking on this link: Oud Masterpieces: From Armenia Turkey & Middle.