TEHRAN -- Kerman folklore musician and singer Yusef Salimi died of a lung disorder at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in the southern Iranian town of Jirof. He was 56.
Salimi was one of 36 masters of Iranian regional music.
“A large part of the oral culture of music in the Kerman region was buried with him upon his death,” Iranian regional music expert Foad Tohidi told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
He performed many songs, some of which were recorded in two albums “For Desert” and “The Amazement of Music”.
Based on a composition by Mohammadreza Darvishi, he also sang for the opening credits of “The Lady of Red Rose”, a documentary that Mojtaba Mirtahmasbi directed about Shahidokht Sarlati, a woman who turned a poppy field in Kerman into a rose garden to extract rosewater.
“Unfortunately, we should say again that there will be no substitute for Yusef Salimi in this region,” Tohidi stated.
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