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.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 January 2017 18:53 (seven years ago) link
What I've heard of his work generally (always?) has a strong emphasis on rhythm, as well.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 January 2017 18:59 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 2 January 2017 20:23 (seven years ago) link
Any hint on where to start with him?
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 03:09 (seven years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:16 (seven years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:20 (seven years ago) link
Try again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJbpZHjSgh0
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:22 (seven years ago) link
The Warda song on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwXhK0U_MEU
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:28 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:32 (seven years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:54 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 04:56 (seven years ago) link
Now that I've actually listened to this, some of this is sufi ritual music or at least based on it.
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 02:51 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 03:46 (seven years ago) link
I love this Shadia song, with the effortlessly and maybe unintentionally psychedelic keyboard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wnKLOGAQM0
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 12 January 2017 03:36 (seven years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 12 January 2017 15:11 (seven years ago) link
Another singer who sings material similar to what Warda and Naget sang.
Or late Oum Kalthoum, for that matter.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 12 January 2017 15:12 (seven years ago) link
The problem is there is probably more than enough music in this particular style.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 12 January 2017 15:19 (seven years ago) link
The best song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU0-CMdkgjk
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
9 views. LMAO.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 18:14 (seven years ago) link
The first time as guitar, the second time as farce.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 19:30 (seven years ago) link
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.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 25 March 2017 22:15 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 23:02 (seven years ago) link
My real comments on the song are on the songs with cool clapping in them thread.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 23:09 (seven years ago) link
That little bit of guitar just melts me. I want to live in the world of that guitar snippet forever.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 25 March 2017 23:12 (seven years ago) link
Posted earlier in this thread, but worth repsting--live footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFmw37eZV5E
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 26 March 2017 00:06 (seven years ago) link
well that has a few more than nine views. :)
― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Sunday, 26 March 2017 02:46 (seven years ago) link
Yes, a lot of people seem to like that one.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 26 March 2017 02:58 (seven years ago) link
The evolution of Arabic Music in one medley! by Alaa Wardi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvyl6MYxlg
― curmudgeon, Friday, 31 March 2017 01:06 (seven years ago) link
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).
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 31 March 2017 04:14 (seven years ago) link
Also really heavy on the Farid.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 31 March 2017 04:16 (seven years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 8 June 2017 04:52 (six years ago) link
Due!
But there is something to be said about her do as well.
Sorry, but I'm going to bed in eight minutes.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 8 June 2017 04:53 (six years ago) link
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2014/329/139273070_1417046139.jpg
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 8 June 2017 04:54 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0RJh3mC38
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 8 June 2017 15:53 (six years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 8 June 2017 16:12 (six years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:11 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBGfSgOpH7E
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:01 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7kr6TiwMWI
― _Rudipherous_, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 15:43 (six years ago) link
Christian Lebanese singer Julia Boutros pays tribute to Hassan Nasrallah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGK6KvbkujE
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 17:41 (six years ago) link
(Not news, but felt like posting it and this performance is a little less over-the-top than the one I saw previously.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 17:42 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKdz8gnY5v0
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 17:52 (six years ago) link
https://stepfeed.com/lebanese-fell-completely-in-love-with-julia-boutros-all-over-again-7552
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 20:47 (six years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 16 December 2017 21:59 (six years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 18 December 2017 16:38 (six years ago) link
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).
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 18 December 2017 16:45 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH_MY9T-PQU
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 21 December 2017 17:53 (six years ago) link
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
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 22 December 2017 03:35 (six years ago) link