Nazem al Ghazali

Nazem al-Ghazali was an Iraqi musician of Kurdish descent who was born in Baghdad. He is widely regarded as the man who revolutionized the maqam, a traditional form of Arabic music. He started his career as an actor, and after a few years turned to singing. He worked at the Iraqi Radio in 1948, and was member of the Andalusian Muashahat Ensemble. In that period, he worked with Jamil Bashir, and together they produced some distinguished works, such as Fog el-Nakhal and Marrou 'Alayya el-Hilween. He was also a student of Muhammad al-Qubanchi, one of the most prominent maqam singers of the last century. Nazem was renowned for his popular songs and he had also recorded some maqams. According to many, his refined mellow voice was the finest in the field. He was married to prominent Iraqi Jewish singer Salima Murad. On October 23, 1963, Nazem al-Ghazali died at the age of 42. He sang nearly 1000 songs, but not all of them have been recorded due to a lack of recording equipment in his early days. Some of his songs are among the most important of the Iraqi folk music.