so this omar souleyman guy (RFI, RFD)

Here's a writeup of his Chicago gig and some tour issues

http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2010/06/chicago-summerdance-omar-souleyman/

i was at the summerstage gig with whiney g; it was good? maybe not as good as I wanted it to be? The crowd was not sure how to handle it. world cup kept the crowd light (maybe 2500?) and they were mostly there to see what the deal was so dancing was minimal. In a club, he would've destroyed. Great voice but it was just him walking around on a giant stage with two guys on synthesizers. needed a light show... though near the end a bellydancer from queens came on and started shakin'.

He ruled in Detroit at the Arab American festival. Yet another reason why it's so awesome that Detroit has such a huge arab american population, beyond all the great restaurants and grocery shopping.

just heard this guy for the first time a few weeks ago. Had planned to go to issue project room tonight but had family situation. friend said it was great though.

A buddy of mine was at that festival in Detroit. Sounds like fun.

he fucking ruled Chicago. but then again, he played in a little slice of Grant Park just off Michigan Avenue. Great crowd, everyone was into it and dancing, young and old. just a perfect scene all around. sucks that the New York gig apparently didn't go off so hot, oh well, that's New York right? you guys take everything for granted. Chicago fucking loved him. rapped a bit with Alvarius B, who was manning the merch. good times

While revered as a legitimate pop star in his native Syria, his bread and butter remains large wedding commissions, where, in accordance with local tradition, he extemporaneously extols the bride, the groom, and their families, usually with humor and awareness of regional current events. His recorded oeuvre is largely made up of cassette releases of these performances, financed by the family of the married couple to bring further glory to their name through cassette sales.

I actually never knew this. "Taxi driver's music" is such a great insult / compliment (delete as appropriate)!

When he play the West?

http://arabicpress.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/omar-souleymans-rise-to-indie-hipster-semifame/

Thought this was interesting, as was Alan Bishop's response in the comments.

Wish he had done more US dates than just Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and 2 NY City shows.

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/tour/omar2010.html

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BzbVmjyhvHI/S_qhkb5sskI/AAAAAAAABVk/B4EGv5Rgp5U/s400/souleyman_T_1.JPG

In response to this article: http://arabicpress.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/omar-souleymans-rise-to-indie-hipster-semifame/

I enjoyed the article and agreed with what it had to say, but this paragraph:

These types of statements compounded with a tendency for the “Western listener” to understand music on his/her terms and a refusal to accept that music can serve a variety of purposes in different cultures, makes me even more doubtful that music has the capacity to function as a “cultural bridge” of any sort. Listening to music for pure enjoyment is fine, but no one should claim that it brings them closer to understanding a culture.

...seems a little off, especially considering when he played the Arab American fest here, there were huge circles of all sorts of middle eastern people mixed with all sorts of hipsters all dancing together. I don't know if everyone was coming closer to understanding each other's culture, but it still seemed to have more power than this author gives creedence.

both the article & the responses make for really good & interesting reading

Was at both Central Park and Issue shows. Issue (BK) show was best for me because he played in a small courtyard where the reverb made everything sound like it was coming out of minaret loudspeakers. Kind of fuzzy and slightly distorted but amazing sounding. Plus there was a nice crowd dancing thruout the show right in front of the stage so the energy level was kept up. Central Park crowd by the stage seemed to dig the awful opening jam band much more and were mostly confused it seemed.

both the article & the responses make for really good & interesting reading

agreed. Before the European tour last year, Omar & his band had never left the region.

One thing that is great about Omar Souleymann is how full on his music is... for all that the indie hipsters are supposedly embracing him, he is more like a Syrian Scooter than a Syrian [insert name of currently kewl hipster band].

Also, YELLA!

Thinking about hitting the London gig on the 28th. Apparently he will be "Performing both a rare Mawal set and a Dabke/Choubi set". I have the first Sublime Frequencies records but apart from that am pretty ignorant; Dabke/Choubi is what SF have put out, right? The best idea I've found of what Mawal would be is this Youtube; people in the know, is this representative?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzDWceu3n9w

I think the frenetic stuff on the Omar Souleyman records is dabke. I am a bit vaguer on what Choubi music is - the wonderful SF compilation "Choubi Choubi" suggests that it is mainly women saying "Choubi" over a less frenetic Arabic/synthy musical accompaniment. Mawal, no idea, but I am sure it will be awesome.

Saw him last night with Dengue Fever (they played first and Omar and his keyboard player did one song with that Cambodian/Los Angeles group) in W. DC. Souleyman's keyboard player manages to sample and play all kinds of instruments featured in dabke and whatever Arabic dancemusic and disco beats out of his two keyboards, while Souleyman sang, chanted and did his little fist-moving dance movements.

that's pretty much what happens, yes.

he was best in the first four songs of an open rainstorm; that was a series of songs to remember.

DC gig was not too crowded. Indie-rock club 930 did not try to reach out to DC's Arabic-speaking community. Some were there though

Was there an NYC date already and I missed it?

Google seems to suggest Souleyman and Dengue Fever were at Webster hall Monday June 4. Don't see any reviews.

Omar Souleyman -- 2012 Tour Dates
6/4 Webster Hall New York, NY*
6/5 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA*
6/6 9:30 Club Washington, DC*
9/1-3 Bumbershoot Seattle, WA
9/5-9 MusicFestNW Portland, OR
9/9 Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA w/ Hot Chip and Passion Pit
* - w/ Dengue Fever

Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the "Ataba," a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear.

No Harbi onstage in W. DC

highway to hassake is spectacular. i love the frenetic dabke stuff but the slower sadder songs sung in ataba style, (or "ataaba"?), e.g. "Jalsat Ataba," are really wonderful. i don't know really anything about syrian music though, what are some other artists to explore if i like souleyman and some of the various styles he performs?

other artists or collections, albums, etc.

Can't really help with Syrian debka along these lines (maybe Ali Aldik's 2004 album with "Aloush" would be close?), but you might like this. The sounds get slightly trippier later in the performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCjeLyqlBI0

(Really biting my tongue here, to tell you the truth.)

New album "Wenu Wenu," produced by Fourtet, is cool:
http://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/230176762/first-listen-omar-souleyman-wenu-wenu

was worried it might be downtempo but so far this bangs. little bit clean-sounding for me, maybe.

ok this is excellent, need to hear it properly i guess before i judge the sound

some minor intrigue at the bottom of this thread:
S/D : Sublime Frequencies

looks like somebody agrees with me re: the production

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24571762

wonder what it is about omar souleyman in particular. the hype totally passed me by, but i heard one of his songs on some international music radio show and it definitely caught my ear.

really good article from earlier in the year:

http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/syria-on-the-cusp-of-hipness-then-fading

I've spoken to a couple of Middle Eastern people who are a bit annoyed by his success and the kind of exoticism they detect behind it because he's, they say, just a wedding singer like any other. I dunno what to think about that other than that Middle Eastern weddings must be pretty cool.

I posted the below on the Rolling "world" music 2013 thread;

Jamie XX and Four Tet guy are into "African music" (not sure what genres. Well, Four Tet's Kieran produced Omar Souleyman)

He went on to discuss his current leanings, explaining: "[I've been] picking up old records and a lot of African music. I've been enjoying the melodies and how different the song structuring process is, and especially how danceable it is. I was speaking to [Four Tet's] Kieran Hebden a while ago and he was recommending me a lot of records in that vein... I feel like I've been absorbing a lot of that production wise. All the records that I collect work their way into the music that I make in some way or another, but I think in terms of the African influence it's becoming more visible."

http://pitchfork.com/news/50045-jamie-xx-says-hes-working-with-big-name-pop-artists-on-african-influenced-new-music/

― curmudgeon, Monday, October 21, 2013 2:14 PM (

And yes I know where Syria is...

the new one is really banging + psychedelic and i've listened to some other syrian wedding music that doesn't really compare. i think esp the new album is something very special. some of the older stuff didn't make much of an impression on me.

Yeah instant love for this over here, was blasting it all yesterday

that other dabke compilation that came out was, tho mb not quite as neat, v banging. wld be curious about similar arab music because ive not found owt

yeah i love this, and i didn't really get into dabke 2020

bringing to mind natacha atlas for me which is prob wildly ignorant

prefer Dabke 2020 on initial listens to the new one, but both are v good

there is probably an inevitable tokenism/exoticism attached to any crossover artist - much more so for artists whose audience has been restricted geographically - but it's hard to blame newcomers for not being familiar with a genre they didn't know existed until the crossover artist came along

This is completely banging but I would never in a million years have guessed that Kieran Hebden produced it because there are virtually no concessions to modern dance music and most of the electronic elements sound like they were recorded in 1991.

i see what you did there

there are virtually no concessions to modern dance music and most of the electronic elements sound like they were recorded in 1991.

I don't know enough about back then to weigh in, or about older Souleyman releases but I see that a Sublime Frequencies guy who once worked with Souleyman is asserting that the new one is not as good as older ones, as is someone from Quietus. I saw Souleyman live once and have heard some of his old and some of his new stuff (and similar sounds from others), but have not listened close enough to pick up the trainspotting differences.

When I went to see him last year I hoped/expected to be able to see Rizan Sa'id do his magic on the synthesizer (as my friend did when he saw him a couple of years earlier) but it turned out there was 'just' someone who controlled a laptop from which the music was generated/streamed. Bit of a bummer, really. He's a great performer though.

Rizan was at the gig i attended, but both were both dwarfed by the enormous stage they came nowhere near occupying

i missed him in Chicago last year but finally saw him at Big Ears last week and the crowd was so into it. it was a smallish space (not an outdoor festival) and everyone was dancing. like every single person except for the man next to me so i gently elbowed him away

my question: will someone please recommend me more music that sounds like "atabat"? iirc he didn't play any slow songs live because it probably would have killed the mood or caused someone to spontaneously combust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESh_qPZFLiI

Wow, this new album. Can't put my finger on it but it's both super familiar yet a lot better than Wenu Wenu

oh I didn't realise he had a new one, cool!

what do you all think of bahdeni nemi?

seems less urgent than wenu wenu and especially the SF releases but i am enjoying it

who's heard the new one?

"Atabat" from the first one came on in the car today, I'd forgotten what a jam that one is.

hmm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/17/syrian-musician-omar-souleyman-held-on-terrorism-charges-in-turkey

Terrible. Free Omar!

yes

update! he's free - after being sent to "a detention center for people due to be deported"

https://ra.co/news/76422

now thats the news we wanted to hear!

also this:

He has lived in Turkey since the onset of the Syrian civil war, running, among other things, a free bakery in Urfa.

Still, just like in China, you can't become too popular without getting your chains rattled by the government every now and then, apparently. :-/