Arabic music (not elsewhere classified)

Yeah, I don't know. Not really happy with what's available on Spotify. As usual, it's not as good as rarities I have on cheap cassettes.

Any hint on where to start with him?

I still tend to prefer my I-don't-know-what-it-is cassettes of his, that include a bunch of songs I didn't find from skimming through what's available on Spotify.

I'm afraid he's someone who never had an amazing voice to begin with, and then didn't gain anything from getting older.

I did a lot of skimming through these earlier.

This one seems promising, but I don't recognize the songs. Might be from a little earlier than a lot of other things available:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2mQa6EAtdpN77w7jvfH7PB

This has some songs I recognize and think are good songs:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0qOK52vUPmULYN7t3vsAVM

This is Warda singing one of his songs (that I think he wrote for her):

https://open.spotify.com/track/6siVEGFFHtrT4e6EHt0jCX

And he wrote one song for Oum Kalthoum, late in her career:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJbpZHjSgh0&spfreload=10

Try again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJbpZHjSgh0

The Warda song on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwXhK0U_MEU

Looks like Warda is having some kind of problems in that video. Not sure what all her gesturing means after the opening vocal lines. Odd. Looks like it was too hot. Maybe the lights were too intense.

This reminds me more of the type of informal setting that I think some of what I have on tape is from. Very cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMvmMWvrB4

So I would say start with that last one I posted and the Oum Kalthoum and Warda songs are famous, so maybe worth checking out.

This one seems promising, but I don't recognize the songs. Might be from a little earlier than a lot of other things available:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2mQa6EAtdpN77w7jvfH7PB

Now that I've actually listened to this, some of this is sufi ritual music or at least based on it.

This has some songs I recognize and think are good songs:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0qOK52vUPmULYN7t3vsAVM

I should recognize them. I think this is the same set of songs I have on the one Sayed Mekawy CD I own. I decided to dust it off this morning and listen to it in the car. Actually better than I'd remembered. I still don't find his voice ideal, but I was getting pretty caught up in the overall flow of the songs.

And the kanoun on the second track is utterly transporting.

I love this Shadia song, with the effortlessly and maybe unintentionally psychedelic keyboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wnKLOGAQM0

I am not sure I've ever mentioned Mayada El Hennawy, but I will mention that she exists. Another singer who sings material similar to what Warda and Naget sang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXFMOZ17TQ

Still active:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpkJC9sclU

Another singer who sings material similar to what Warda and Naget sang.

Or late Oum Kalthoum, for that matter.

The problem is there is probably more than enough music in this particular style.

The best song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU0-CMdkgjk

9 views. LMAO.

The first time as guitar, the second time as farce.

Is this her:

Samira Ghastin Karimona, better known by her stage name Samira Tewfik is a Lebanese singer who gained fame in the Arab world for her specializing in singing in the Bedouin dialect of Jordan. She has also acted in a number of Arab films.

Yes. I hadn't know most of what's in that entry. I had no idea her father was Armenian. Thought both her parents were Bedouin. Maybe neither were? Check out that song, it really is great and upbeat.

My real comments on the song are on the songs with cool clapping in them thread.

That little bit of guitar just melts me. I want to live in the world of that guitar snippet forever.

Posted earlier in this thread, but worth repsting--live footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFmw37eZV5E

well that has a few more than nine views. :)

Yes, a lot of people seem to like that one.

The evolution of Arabic Music in one medley! by Alaa Wardi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvyl6MYxlg

Pretty good. Spends too much time after the classic era, but I would say that. I stop recognizing specific songs about halfway through (maybe a little past).

Also really heavy on the Farid.

I don't think I give Sabah her do. Noticing a bunch of her albums on Spotify that I don't think I've ever heard.

Due!

But there is something to be said about her do as well.

Sorry, but I'm going to bed in eight minutes.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2014/329/139273070_1417046139.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0RJh3mC38

This album is very good. I've never heard it before and had no idea it existed. I wish there were a comprehensive guide to the releases of the major Arab recording artists, or the old school ones anyway. I know these people are prolific, but sometimes I'm startled to find whole batches of material I haven't seen before.

The other singer on the album is Wadi el Safi.

Shadi Jamil apparently performing in Aleppo:

LIVE NOW from Syria's Aleppo: Massive concert held at the Citadel Theater to celebrate the defeat of terrorism & the return of normal life. pic.twitter.com/uwRjBHWN8w

— Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) July 25, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBGfSgOpH7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kr6TiwMWI

Christian Lebanese singer Julia Boutros pays tribute to Hassan Nasrallah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGK6KvbkujE

(Not news, but felt like posting it and this performance is a little less over-the-top than the one I saw previously.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKdz8gnY5v0

https://stepfeed.com/lebanese-fell-completely-in-love-with-julia-boutros-all-over-again-7552

this performance is a little less over-the-top than the one I saw previously

Also, the bouzouk solo at the beginning, though brief, is a nice touch.

Notice the size of her audiences. I know about Arab music I don't necessarily talk about (and that does not otherwise get mentioned here). On the other hand, I am being honest when I say I don't really keep up with most of it.

Speaking of not keeping up (and therefore not knowing stuff), yes, there is a much larger Arab indie scene becoming available to mostly internet- and Spotify-dependent western listeners like me than I remember being there not that long ago, but maybe I wasn't looking. Mostly realizing this after looking at the related artists for the most interesting Nadah El Shazly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvB83JBBnQ4

And check the Asmahan sample on this Psychaleppo track (for a moment I definitely recognized it without knowing what it was):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-6SQjdgdg4

Have not noticed the Psychaleppo mentioned anywhere at all. I'm not sure it splits the difference between traditional Arab music and electronic music in a way I find completely satisfying, but I haven't even heard it all yet. I posted something by them a long time ago (but if I mentioned them by name I must have misspelled it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH_MY9T-PQU

Sanpaku nominated this for our poll, and I have to admit I didn't know it existed, and in fact had lost track of what Mar-Khalife has been doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nwCbZfPxcY

This is the Asmahan song extensively sampled in the Hello PsychAleppo song above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV1pbIzcpB8

From what I gather (from interviews and articles here and there), he is drawing a parallel between his own existence as a Syrian in exile, or as a Syrian refugee.

She was a Druze princess! I never get tired of bringing that up.