As far as Persian musicians go, at the moment I'm most interested in hearing Hossein Alizadeh.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 February 2010 11:15 (fourteen years ago) link
But I think I'm more interested in his more "experimental" work, like his electrified instrument: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/halizadeh2 or his fusions with western classical: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/halizadeh, just because I don't totally relate to Persian classical music. In fact, I've decided my strategy w/r/t to Iranian and Turkish music should be to go for the impure material (whether westernized or experimental).
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 February 2010 11:53 (fourteen years ago) link
The very interesting Iranian label Hermes Records also carries dozens of CDs on which Alizadeh appears in some capacity or other:
http://www.hermesrecords.com/catalo.htm
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 February 2010 12:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Also that work I said is electrified is not. Not sure where I got that idea.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 February 2010 14:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Hossein Alizadeh is interesting. Watched a Youtube. The Masters of Persian Music tour that he is on, I see includes more than just DC on Sunday. I saw references to Boston and elsewhere online. I think I might have to miss it now though.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 26 February 2010 16:05 (fourteen years ago) link
RFI: music like tanger music?
― bamcquern, Wednesday, 3 March 2010 01:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Can't help there.
Of the three Al Hifnawi CDs I bought, so far I like this best:
http://www.allegro-music.com/sku_images/HMC31387.JPG
The Grand Melodies of Om Kalsoum. He's performing here with her orchestra (of which he was a member, of course), but it sounds to me like a slightly more stripped down version of it than you hear in a lot of her mid-to-late-career recordings, which is a good thing in my book. For one thing, there seems to be a bit more heterophonic stuff going on, at least on some cuts. This collection focuses on songs from the late 30s and 40s (also I good thing, imo). Anyway, I think this is an excellent instrumental introduction to the old classical/popular Egyptian music. It might just work as a way to ease people into approaching Oum Kalthoum's vocals somewhere down the line. If it isn't obvious, Al Hifnawi's violin takes the place (to the extent that's possible, etc. etc.) of Oum Kalthoum's voice here.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 5 March 2010 01:52 (fourteen years ago) link
it sounds to me like a slightly more stripped down version of it
Could just be the arrangements and not actually a change in the size of the orchestra. Plus, given the quieter dynamics of Al Hifnawi's violin playing, it can't really let itself get as loud as it would in accompanying Oum Kalthoum's amplified voice.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 5 March 2010 01:59 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkf5czm7k8I
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 20 March 2010 05:31 (fourteen years ago) link
This very odd cover makes me want this, though I'm pretty sure I don't like Haifa Wehbe: http://www.melody4arab.com/music/lebnan/hifia_wahby/haifa_baby_____________________/q8lots12698933421.jpg
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 16 April 2010 09:22 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/38841/simon-shaheen-at-the-atlas-performing-arts-center
― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 May 2010 16:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Ghazal is doing a 6 city tour of North America with Afghan pop singer Jonibek. They'll be at the Sheraton in Tyson's Corner Virginia out side DC Friday May 21 and in a Marriot in Melville, NY (Long Island) Sat. May 22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ye_Jp4iDs
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 20 May 2010 03:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Not being facetious, but this might better go on an Indian or Persian music thread. Afghan music is more closely related to those. Of course I haven't looked at these particular artists so maybe there is some connection I'm missing.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 20 May 2010 04:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh, that song sounds pretty good, and she's really cute as well.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 20 May 2010 04:25 (thirteen years ago) link
I wasn't sure where to put it-- I think I mentioned the show on the global whirled thread but then decided it might be better elsewhere. There's no Afghan thread and I do not know enough about that music to say whether it is more like Persian or Indian than Arabic.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 20 May 2010 13:00 (thirteen years ago) link
This is great! I have this on cassette!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4fO5NYfck
Milhem Baraket. Did I already post a version of this song, I can't remember?
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 03:10 (thirteen years ago) link
More earlyish George Wassouf:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rmi3000#p/u/290/Lh2Aj4R_pDo
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link
No pretty sure that's the first time I've found and linked to that Melhem Baraket song.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 03:50 (thirteen years ago) link
The way the song unfolds and builds is just impeccable. I like the way the lines get repeated and there is a different melody for each line (is there?), which incidentally may mean that this is following a relatively classical sort of approach to song structure. If I remember my Ali Jihad Racy.
I'm pretty sure he writes most of his own material, incidentally.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 03:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Not that it's considered polite to mention such things on ILM.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 03:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Listening again: these rhythms feel soooooo comfortable to me and they have from the beginning as far as I can remember. I may not actually dance to this, but I definitely dance inside, and it's hard not imagine some sort of movement, though I don't think I'm quite up to doing what the music asks for. Too bad the audio is even worse than what I have on cassette.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 04:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Love the seemingly compulsive ornamentation on the keyboard parts too.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 04:03 (thirteen years ago) link
You guys have no ears!
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:01 (thirteen years ago) link
I realize abuse is not actual helpful, but come on.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:02 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4fO5NYfckhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4fO5NYfckhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4fO5NYfckhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4fO5NYfck
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 02:49 (thirteen years ago) link
It's a shame the way the distinctive Arab sounding (monophonic? I think it's monophonic) chorus came to dominate so much of this music. I'd probably listen to far more Arabic music if it weren't for this chorus sound being all over the place. Right now I am checking out clips from some Sabah and Wadi el Safi CDs. I love the lead vocals. I like the material being sung. But the choirs are kind of annoying. It's not that I can't tolerate them, but I don't need to hear dozens or hundreds of albums with that same sound. And if it's so essential, why did Oum Kalthoum successfully do without it for most of her career?
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 13:48 (thirteen years ago) link
If I were the Arabic Music Czar. . .
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 13:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Way to ruin a lot of great music, guys!
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 13:57 (thirteen years ago) link
This is the sound that has pretty much dominated Arabic popular music since, at least in Egypt (but Egypt tends to export the most music to the rest of the Arab world). I'm pretty sure this track is from the original "new sound" album. This is the sound that initially drew me to Arabic music, really, although I pretty immediately liked some other things once exposed to them (not Oum Kalthoum though).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FUb4PomhOI
I find rmi3000's channel fascinating because it covers the early history of "new sound" which is where my personal history with Arabic music begins (give or taking a very small amount of dabbling before that).
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Just kinda lazily wrapping up loose ends here, I think.
One of my personal nicknames for this music at the time I was listening to a ton of it was "clap clap music."
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 15:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Well then, here's Milhem Baraket performing what I'm pretty sure is just a song everybody covers, but I'm not sure exactly how old it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvFuNdTGki8
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 16:27 (thirteen years ago) link
a song everybody covers
Every Lebanese male singer anyway.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 16:40 (thirteen years ago) link
I mentioned Nour Mehanna upthread, but I never linked to any yootoobs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XirXm2t3o
Pretty amazing vocalist. (Syrian.)
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 17:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Also does stuff like this, and various others points in between a more classical/traditionalist approach and pop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Q_113ENN0
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 17:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Lebanon 80's Top 100 Arabic Hits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0SxMRLcdjc
I recognize #39 (in fact, I wish I knew who it was), so it was still kicking around on mixes in the first half of the 90s.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 1 August 2010 19:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I love it when Rudipherous talks to itself.
― bamcquern, Sunday, 1 August 2010 20:40 (thirteen years ago) link
It's sad that no one else here (including me) knows anything about this music to converse with him. I wish more folks familiar with Arabic music who could converse in English knew about this board.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 August 2010 01:53 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128431817
Fairuz from Lebanon on NPR
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 August 2010 01:56 (thirteen years ago) link
And a Radio Lebanon dj's summer faves on NPR (well, a story about one, and a listing of others)!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128668709&ps=cprs
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 August 2010 01:59 (thirteen years ago) link
She still refuses interviews
Pretty sure I've seen recent interviews with her.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 02:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Anyway, curmudgeon, don't worry. I have the music itself, though it would be nice to know more about it, just on a basic "what is this song so I can look for a better copy of it of some sort" kind of way. It's funny that I'm all excited to find a song like that Milhem Barakat song on youtube after all these years, only to be met by silence here when I share it. But it's okay. I have no doubts about the song.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 02:46 (thirteen years ago) link
The weird thing for me in hearing that Barakat song is how his intonation and scale-climbing at the very beginning reminds me vaguely of some cantors I have heard in synagogues. Middle East conflicts will go on and on but at the risk of sounding cliched, the peoples share certain cultural similarities.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 August 2010 03:39 (thirteen years ago) link
He's a Christian, like a lot of prominent Lebanese singers, so that strand of liturgical tradition (probably the Maronite church specifically) would be a source for him. I'm not sure if that's closer to Jewish cantorial tradition than Qur'anic recitation (etc.), but possibly. Let me mention again that those Ghada Shbeir recordings Syriac liturgical music are worth hearing (and some of this music is clearly a source for Lebanese popular music, or shares a common source).
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 13:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Interesting. Thanks.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 August 2010 18:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Rudipherous: As far as I know, that Milhem Barakat song you posted a few days ago (يا عين صبى دمع) is an original of his.
― Ivor, Monday, 2 August 2010 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Thanks. What would an English transliteration of that title look like (roughly)?
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh wait, that one. I think the one at the beginning is traditional, but the other one they go into is his. You are talking about the last Barakat clip I posted? There's a mawwal, then there's a song I recognize from other singers (and it sort of goes back and forth between mawwal and the song, which is how the song goes anyway), then it goes into another song that I think I have heard on one of his tapes before (and which sounds like it's in his style). But for all I know, that first song is his too. I just know I've heard George Wassouf sing it (and it seems odd to me that he'd cover a Barakat song since they are more like competitors, where covering Oum Kalthoum or Warda songs makes more sense since they are clearly in another league) as well as another Lebanese singer whose name is escaping me (maybe another George).
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 19:07 (thirteen years ago) link
On here: http://www.maqam.com/store/p/1358-Sahra-Ataba-Mijana.html
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 August 2010 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh Eye, Shedder of Tears = يا عين صبى دمع
Yeah the first part is a traditional extolling the virtues and beauty of Beirut, the real song doesn't start til the real drums kick in. As for Georges Wassouf's cover, I'm not familiar with it, I do know Ilyas Nakhla had a pretty popular cover.
Also, for some reason I am really digging Georges Wassouf - Allah Kareem (الله كريم - جورج وسوف) even though last year I couldn't stand the song when half the taxi drivers and half the satellite channels were playing it nonstop. Dunno why, can't really explain it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPoSDffKWk
― Ivor, Tuesday, 3 August 2010 23:18 (thirteen years ago) link