Arabic music (not elsewhere classified)

The multi-volume Best of Oldies series on Spotify is recommended. The emphasis is on khaleeji, with occasional surprises from outside the Gulf.

Search (on Spotify): Hanan - Rayka

one of my favorite new sound (or as I used to call it "clap clap") songs. Now quite dated sounding, of course, though new sound was born a bit dated sounding. I particularly like the false start. The opening sounds like a very cheap attempt at a Philly Sound soul hit from the 70s.

I could make a playlist, but listening is too unfocused and unvaried to work on something like that these days.

I always imagine a video for some of these songs with little clapping hand-puppet "Arabs."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vgvw1B7B-c

I don't know if I've linked to this one before, but this is great. However, this is from around the same era as another song I am still hoping to find, with spring-time electric guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLvOC3bFpk0

Nice voice and nicely mixed instrumentation. The dancing is so folky. So she's Lebanese but first had success in Jordan, if the bio I read is correct.

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/04/153919877/revolutionary-road-from-carthage-to-cairo?ft=1&f=153919877

I have not listened to these NPR news reports or the mix of Arabic and Western (but heard there) songs on the playlist

I suggested that perhaps Umm Kathoum was the Bruce Springsteen of classic Egyptian music. This proposal was neither accepted nor rejected.

Bruce Springsteen? Way to insult the woman. (From that NPR link.) Bruce Springsteen?

*

I was sitting in a library Friday, attempting to rip cassettes to music CDRs. I only came away with one, unfortunately, so I'll have to try to figure out what is causing things not to take. However, sitting there listening to some of my favorite music with head phones, I was often swept away. Isn't ecstasy what I most want from music, most of the time?

It seems "my music" (as in my favorite music, the music that matters to me most) is scattered around the world like fragments of the divine in a Kabbalistic universe.

What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross.

http://thequietus.com/articles/12078-electro-chaabi-cairo-four

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/fa/contents/articles/opinion/2013/05/egypt-new-music-mahraganat-sadat-electro-shaabi.html

http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-new-techno-sound-from-egypts-streets/

still need to check out youtubes of Sadat and others identified with "mahraganat"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwxAxR5HMgo

eh

When I read about some music, it always sounds more exciting than when I finally hear it. Oh well.

Tues., Aug. 6
Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy Center 6 pm El Gusto, an Algerian orchestra consisting of the students of the first music class led by the founder of chaabi music—El Anka, reunites after 50 years of separation for a U.S. tour that will invite Americans into the world of chaabi music, the passion and soul of the Algerian Casbah.

Kennedy Center press release

Chaabi Checker!

Ha ha

It doesn't all sound like that though Curmudgeon, it's pretty varied.

Check this mix Joost from Incubate in his Cairo Liberation Front guise did for us.

Also you might enjoy new wave Chaabi better than the electro 'Chaa3i' stuff.

Islam Chipsy for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KpkvJB529M

RIP Warda, 1939-2012. I'm a little sad I'm only finding out now that she is deceased. For old school singers dressed in "new sound" (c. the 90s I think) wrappings, this works fairly well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1J0v6gxvqE

An excerpt from Esmaouni (music by Baligh Hamdi, to whom she was married for a time). Picks up a bit after about two minutes, if anyone gets impatient:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yy7_wMPck

There was a time when I played her songs nearly every day.

a strong voice. I like this style too

I'm usually reticent about posting my stuff on ILX unless I think the piece is so marginal that it might be of interest to certain people. I hope this is one of those pieces.

Remembering Syria: Mark Gergis Of Sublime Frequencies interviewed about dabke, choubi and how the Middle East is viewed in the West

Thanks. Interesting

Haven't heard this, but here's a pr email excerpt

Sound: the Encounter (December 2013 Tour: NYC, Washington DC and Houston TX dates) brings together adventurous musicians from Iran and Syria who seek to reassemble diverse expressions of a shared musical heritage in contemporary forms. The result is a collection of newly-developed and arranged musical pieces inspired by the millennium-old musical legacy of the ancient Silk Route that are rooted in classical and folk traditional musical forms and re-imagined within a new artistic frame.

Ancient instruments (bagpipes, flutes and drums) take on new contemporary identities in the hands of award-winning Syrian composer and saxophonist Basel Rajoub, acclaimed Iranian musician and dancer Saeid Shanbezadeh, and up-and-coming Iranian virtuoso percussionist Naghib Shanbezadeh

Great old brooding Saleh Abdul Gafoor song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP6V88ZEJ58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAc7a Can anyone tell me the what the music is in this clip?

Curious about what this was now... can you repost a working link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm-t5EGkNYM it was this (it was on a video of some kids driving in odd ways, but that seems to have vanished)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQm5BnhTBEQ here it is...

محمد فهد <- Apparently the singer is Mohamed Fahd

I bought this CD a long time ago, but have recently been listening to it in the car. A good, maybe very good, collection of relatively early material, which I think I like more at this point than her later, sprawling songs:

http://resources.wimpmusic.com/images/84cd234a/e429/4baf/a0db/4ac948df3cbb/1280x1280.jpg

On Spotify too.

I like this song in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkpPn2wE0Q4

Her name came up on the Oum Kalthoum thread, but I don't remember if I've ever posted anything much by her. This is fairly representative, from what I've heard. Has that late 60s/early 70s semi-psychedelic sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0aqI0Pz4DY

I assume that is the newly trendy Omar Khorshid on guitar. (He's all over big name Egyptian recordings in this time period.)

Another:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev0FU9e5XA4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCCnz3z4VMU

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/08/in-tune-the-psychedelic-roots-nasida-ria.html

Islamic Indonesian band Nasida Ria

The band, which started out as a mixed-gender tambour-playing Islamic choir in 1975, evolved into an all-female band that mixed modern elements of pop music and tunes from the Middle East as performed by legends like Oum Kalthoum and Omar Khorshid.

http://www.npr.org/event/music/472546837/ibrahim-maalouf-plays-umm-kulthum

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/arts/music/ibrahim-maalouf-oum-kalthoum-beyonce.html

More stuff I am curious about:

Oumeima El Khalil & Marwan Makhoul are gonna be in W. DC Oct 30th at Gaston hall; and the same night at GW Lisner Aud.

Iraqi singer Kadhim Al-Sahir

Oumenia El Khalil is great! She is Marcel Khalife's cousin. Sang on some of his early albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFdEUJOsM7M

Kadhim Al-Sahir is an Iraqi superstar. I tend to write it more like Kazem or Kathem el-Sahier. Can't say I like most his songs but he is a good singers. This is him singing what seems to be something like a standard in the region:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRWgUQWba9c

That first is one of those 80s Marcel Khalife songs, so not necessarily representative of what she'd be singing now. Again, she is a great singer but I don't always like all the material she performs. But it's more of a mixed bag than in the case of Kazem el-Saher (whose own songs I generally am not into at all--but Iraqi music can be a tough nut to crack, very much its own thing).

There's a good chance she'll sing at least one old MK song, though, since those are crowd-pleasers.

(And justifiably so, imo.)

She was in Philadelphia last year (not that I was there):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlwn9DXRnc

Thanks. Will check those out

I really haven't followed Kazer el Saher and I probably should check back in with what he's doing. I just remembering the production on his 90s and early 00s songs being kind of extremely busy and bizarre, but not in a way I found interesting. This seems a lot different, though I'm still not sure I love the style. I have a feeling a lot rests on the lyrics, in his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxFuaZL9pRY

Another Naget song. Recommended:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgwZTu-dVgU

I don't think I've mentioned Setrak & Ranin much, but it's pretty good belly dance material (suitable for other listening as well):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI84rnEqPdw

I think this is from the early 90s, although what I was listening to then might have been a collection of older material.

Nice comparatively low-key Samira Toufic song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAJw5HM3IXI

Spotify has a load of Sayed Mekawy recordings. I don't know why I'm still surprised by major figures in Arabic music recording so prolifically; but in this case it may be because I think of him mainly as a composer, even if I have a couple live recordings of his that I like. His vocals can be a stumbling block at time. I definitely rank him more highly as composer than singer, but I'm still curious to hear more. He has a very traditional roots/street nasality. He generally has great accompaniment in the recordings I've heard.

What I've heard of his work generally (always?) has a strong emphasis on rhythm, as well.

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.