Oum Kalthoum, Om Kolthom, Om Kalsoum, Omm Kalsoum, Omme Kolsoum, Oom Koolsum, Oum Kalthoum, Oum Kalthum, Oum Kalsoum, Oum Kaltsoum, Oum Kolthoum, Oum Koulsoum, Oum Kulthum, Oum Kulthume, Um Kalthoum,

(And I just got the contract ratification bonus check today. Wheeee! And I took some decongestant because I'm getting a sinus infection! Wheeeee!)

gaz, you can e-mail me at my new normal ILX e-mail address: oumtransmissions@go.com. I have even written down my password.

I also saw yesterday that Women's Voices Across Musical Worlds has an article on the subject of this thread by Virginia Danielson, which looked like a really good compact introduction to Oum Kalthoum.

Recommended recordings:

Why is Al Atlal so often the recommended CD? Why that as the only one-song CD they recommend? Why recommend the 5 volume EMI collection of early material? Why bypass the core of her greatest work: the late 30s through the early 60s?

I paid over ten dollars for this issue of Songlines, so I could complain about this?

(Songlines is really lightweight. Despite it's frequent mediocrity, I think The Beat's coverage of the "world music" that it covers, which probably wouldn't include Oum Kalthoum, is better.)

Geez, I think the Oum Kalthoum intro. that appeared in Global Rhythms was better than this (but that's by the same author who wrote that NPR guide mentioned above, and I get the impression that he's spent some time listening to Oum Kalthoum.

Actually, Songlines is pretty good for reviews. It's the articles that are usually a let-down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Kulthum

Jah Wobble? He's worth mentioning in a capsule biography of Umm Kulthum? (Did Natacha Atlas write this?)

http://www.lorenlarsen.com/joanna/ummbio.htm

I think Mohammed might just be a little better known.

She did not use musical scores, she simply sang a few simple lines over and over altering them as her heart saw fit.

She didn't read scores while performing, but her works were probably all pre-composed. The lines might have generally been fairly simple, but some of the lyrics were considered to be very challenging poetry.

Oum Kalthoum in Iraq, 1932. (That's what the website said anyway.)

Oum Kalthoum's villa.

BOOM, the GLASSES.

Thanks

"The greatest ever singer in the world"--Rabih Abou Khalil (quoted in Songlines, Jan/Feb 2006).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWvmD9A2RA

The beginning of "Baid Anak" is now up on youtube. (There are other parts up too. I haven't checked to see if it is a complete concert. The CD copy of this is quite long, and even it, I think, leaves off a portion of the instrumental intro. here, though I haven't listened for a while, so I'm not positive.) This opening passage is one of my favorite Oum Kalthoum performances (and it's from relatively late in her career). Notice how she totally works off the one possibly overzealous audience member who calls out (around 4:26ish) and just takes everything deeper. This is absolute must-see if you are remotely interested in Oum Kalthoum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl0g6dXIsqQ

Performing "Al Atlal" in Paris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy_24rwXlKA

Another "Al Atlal"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLmDUk4g7xg

(This was something she performed very heavily in her international touring at one point in the 60s. Not like I was there, alas.)

This is pretty amazing (one-hand oud solo version of "Inta Omri"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRvcIwKL2fI

Interesting. This Kuwaiti audience behaves more like a western audience than maybe any other audience I've seen/heard in an Oum Kalthoum live recording.

another victim of ilx2 thread title truncation

Yes, it's sad. What is it with people reviving my old threads today? (Not complaining, it's just weird.)

If only ILX could do Arabic script - then we would only need one version of her name.

Hey Rockist Scientist or someone, can you date/rate these two new eMusic acquisitions....?

http://www.emusic.com/album/Oum-Kalthoum-Oz-Kourini-MP3-Download/11174931.html

http://www.emusic.com/album/Oum-Kalthoum-Oud-Kourini-MP3-Download/11174968.html

or daterape

I think I have a copy of this first one, but I will have to check and get back to you once I'm at home.

These are good:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Oum-Kalthoum-Oum-Kalsoum-Arabian-Master-MP3-Download/10978902.html

I'm checking out Ozkourini now. I think I picked this up in one of the last batches of Oum Kalthoum CDs I bought, which I haven't listened to all that much. This didn't really stand out for me, but sometimes it takes me a while to get into particular recordings by the subject of this thread. There are some fine solo violin passages so far.

There was just a big "ALLAH!" from the audience which I didn't see coming, which means I'm not quite clicking with it. Usually when I really click with one of these performances, I know when the audience is about to flip out.

It's very dark and brooding (presumably, romantically), even by the standards of her repertoire.

The pace is finally picking up somewhat, but I'd have to say this is not something I'd recommend to someone who hasn't heard a bunch of her other music already.

I've never seen the movie clip for this song before. "Ha Ablou Bokra," one of my favorite relatively shorter songs from her career:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSSnRQw3v0

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001801_pf.html

life at the Uum Kulthum cafe in Iraq

Devotees of the Sad, Beautiful Voice of Umm Kulthum

By Andrea Bruce
Washington Post Staff Photographer
Monday, August 11, 2008; A11

The cafe's dust-streaked sign is lost amid the chaos of old Baghdad. But a painted silhouette of a woman hangs above the entrance, signaling the way to an unlighted, soot-covered hallway stacked with broken generators.

Through the passage, street sounds fade and a woman's voice becomes clear. A reel-to-reel tape player is spinning the songs of the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. More than 30 years after her death, she is still probably the best-known and most beloved singer in the Middle East.

Several regulars -- well-dressed men who appear to be in their 50s -- sit on benches in the multitiered room known as the Umm Kulthum Cafe. They sip tea as they listen.

"Her voice is sweet," says Waheed A. Fatia, 61, who claims to have had an Umm Kulthum obsession since he was 10. "She has layers, a rich soprano. And she performs improvised, like American jazz."

Hookah pipes bubble, the fragrant smoke competing with the harsh, unfiltered cigarette smoke from the other side of the room, where men flip dominoes or softly move a rook into check. They play from midmorning to early evening, every day, to the sad, beautiful voice of Umm Kulthum. The cafe plays nothing else.

"No one obeys laws now, or has pride," Waheed says. "No security. No stability. But through all of this," he adds, looking around the cafe, "this is the same."

Less than a minute later, four young men wearing soccer jerseys and T-shirts emerge from the hallway and approach the cafe manager. They are members of the Sons of Iraq, former insurgents now allied with U.S. forces, here to collect the monthly "protection" fee of 15,000 Iraqi dinars -- about $12.

"This used to be a good street. With a bus stop, nightlife," says Jehad el-Obeiedi, 70, a retired movie director. "They called it 'the city of singing.' There was a famous nightclub next door."

From age-blackened paintings and framed black-and-white photos, Umm Kulthum looks down over her fans from every wall of the cafe while they hum her songs.

"We listen to her every day," Obeiedi says, "as if listening to it for the first time."

Washington Post photographer Andrea Bruce is documenting the lives of people in Iraq in a feature, Unseen Iraq, appearing regularly in the World pages. For a photo gallery and previous columns, visit http://blog.washingtonpost.com/unseen-iraq.

Still the best.

I think there might be a tribute to her coming up as part of the February and March Arabic Music events coming to the Kennedy Center in DC

Oum Kalthoum rehearsing a song she never formally recorded or publically performed:

rockist can you send something our way? post a link on yousendit perhaps? I'm very interested to hear some more of her if possible.