― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Thursday, 16 September 2004 02:39 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm not into Bashir's playing at all, and I don't feel any emotional connection to it. Is there anything more you can say about what you like about his oud playing? (I realize it's not always easy to try to descrbe these things.)
My ideal example of oud playing, which I haven't mentioned yet in this thread, is the solo in Riad el Sounbatti's Ashwak.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 16 September 2004 10:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Thursday, 23 September 2004 00:26 (nineteen years ago) link
Actually, I see now that I did mention Riad el Sounbatti already on this thread. Here's the web-site with some real audio files, but they don't really do justice to his sound.
The CD collecting his oud solos (which I don't own myself) is out of print. He's known primarily as a composer (since he composed the music for more of Oum Kalthoum's songs than any other composer). I think he's also a great oudist. I like him as a singer as well. His voice is more limited than the voices of the more famous stars, but I find it very appealing.
I'm not even finding Ashwaq listed for sale anywhere, so that might be out of print too.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 23 September 2004 00:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Thursday, 23 September 2004 01:03 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm listening to the audio file for "Ashwaq" from the site I just linked too, and I think it still sounds good. I think some of the emotional impact comes from the specific tone he gets, which comes across better on the CD I have. (El Sounbatti has kind of a contemplative style of playing as well. I just find it very moving, especially in the case of this particular solo.) But I think his use of silence and his pacing and sense of rhythm also stand out. Plus it somehow doesn't sound like every other oud solo I've ever heard, even though I think it is pretty strictly traditional. (I'm not sure this is improvised though. It could be composed along with the rest of "Ashwaq.")
"Ashwaq" is a song (with a ten minute oud solo in the minute), but the CD that includes it and two other songs doesn't have any other title I can discern, at least not in English. I can barely make out the catalog number on the cover, and the whole thing looks only partly legitimate, but I think the line between licensed and unlicensed is fuzzier in the middle east. (Much as I've heard that state-run CD shops in Cuba sell CDR copies of CDs released on Cuba's state label EGREM!)
There are a couple el Sounbatti CDs in print, one that I have and one that I don't have (mostly because I've heard the sound was very bad, though I'm surprised that stopped me). I have the one that includes the song "Al Atlal." It's a good CD, but I wouldn't say his oud playing stands out as much there. The playing is good, but it's meant to accent the singing. Hmmm, well, it does sort of drive things forward rhythmically too. I haven't listened to it for a while.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 23 September 2004 01:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 23 September 2004 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Monday, 11 October 2004 20:50 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm really glad you liked the el Sounbatti file. Yes, I do find that if I listen carefully to this music, it will often deepen my breathing. I really suspect its modelled on the sort of breath-related pauses in Qur'anic recitation.
I wanted to mention the CD by Iraqi oudist (in exile) Rahim AlHaj:Iraqi Music in a Time of War (which I actually found out about from a Christgau review). His style is not that removed from Bachir's in some respects, but it sounds a little more Egyptian to me. (I'm not sure I really know enough to make these judgments though.) Also, it's a little more rhythmic, or rhythmic in a more upfront sort of manner. It's a live recording and I think the second third is better than the first, while the last third is better than the second. He seems to get better as he plays.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:47 (nineteen years ago) link
One final thing thoug: here are Ali Jihad Racy's comments on these three oudists in "The Many Faces of Improvisation: The Arab Taqasim as a Musical Symbol" (for which I did not write down a source):
Among 'ud players, there are numerous distinctive profiles. For example, the late Farid al-Atrash of Egypt often prefaced his live vocal performances with his own taqasim on the 'ud. Displaying a popular style of 'ud playing seemingly intended to please large live audiences and fans, his renditions stand out for their relatively fast pacing and dense picking, and for making frequent use of the more familiar maqamat. Also striking is the prevalence of cliche qaflat and 'expected surprises,' for example habitaully ending his ud taqasim with a passage in maqam Kurd and gradually introducing a pedal-toen and a melodic configuration outlining the piece 'Asturias' by the Spanish composer Albeniz. Al-Atrash's taqasim are copied widely, at times note for note by amateur ud players, whose imitations often drraw criticism for lacking originality, in other words for being banal and highly predictable.
In contrast, the late Riyad al-Sunbati of Egypt, considered one of the greatest composers and proponents of the Arab modal tradition, has recorded somewhat circumspect taqasim that flow along the organic structures of the mode but evoke intense ecstatic sensations. Particularly cherished by other musicians and musical aficianados, al-Sunbati's style is marked by precise intonation, careful pacing, distinct interest in rsonance, careful utilization of pauses, economy and subtlety in the use of the plectrum, and full exploration of the primary mode before a modulation is introduced. His renditions achieve a unique balance between feeling and technical excellence.
Meanwhile, the late Iraqi 'ud player Munir Bashir, whose style is influenced by the artistry of his Turkish trained teacher Sharif Muhyi al-Din Haydar, presents a highly lyrical style which unlike the traditional mainstream of Arab 'ud playing appears seamless, thus avoiding clear cut qaflat and phrase delineations. Many of his (typically long) performances stay in the same maqam and maintain a subdued, meditative mood quite consistently. Listeners sometimes pseak of non-Arab inluences on his style, including North Indian ragas and jazz. Having performed in various major cities in Asia, Europe, and North America, Bashir has created improvisatory works that are intended to evoke specific impressions, for example those of ancient Babylon. Deriving significantly from the Iraqi modal tradition, Bashir's style is also highly ambient. Employing subtle but effective dynamic inflections and a gradual build up in the intensity of picking, his playing is known to demand quiet concentration on the part of the listeners.
He really slams Farid there, maybe too much. I think he had a pretty distinctive sound as an oud player.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link
A page of files of Farid songs. Check out "3enaya mahma aloo 3annak" (or at least the beginning) as an example. He performs a solo not very long into the song. Great rhythms in the song itself, too.
And one for Asmahan, his enchanting, mysterious, and ill-fated sister (who is another member of the Arabic music pantheon), just in case you are curious. The first song there is probably as good an entry point as any.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 00:41 (nineteen years ago) link
A guitarist, Farid fuses modern jazz with the traditional gambus (Malay lute). His electric gambus was crafted by luthier Jeffrey Yong of GIM Custom Guitar, and bears his name on its chest.
“The gambus was invented some 3000 years ago. It only arrived in Malaysia in the 13th and 14th centuries,” said Farid. “Some scholars even claimed that it was invented by the sixth grandson of Adam.”
Farid & Friends making great music with different instruments. The gambus is made of wood (hence the name oud). But unlike the guitar, it has 12 strings and no frets-ridges on the fingerboard.--http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2005/3/13/features/10351458&sec=features
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 3 April 2005 13:36 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.mauriceouds.com/english/about.asp
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 5 March 2006 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahOVh1VVD3w&search=farid%20atrash
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 9 April 2006 02:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― smokemon (eman), Sunday, 9 April 2006 04:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 9 April 2006 11:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 10 June 2006 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't hear enough oud recordings to make sweeping judgments, but I still think this is an instant classic.
It's a really long, extremely well-recorded CD, and it feels like a big space to explore. I wish I could listen to it on a good stereo, because part of the enjoyment is in all of the subtle timbral aspects of the performance, including sometimes seemingly incidental sounds. The recording is dominated by oud improvisation (sometimes completely solo, sometimes with spare percussion accompaniment), but also includes instrumental, oud and percussion, renderings of well-known (enough so that I recognized most of them) folkloric songs.
The live Iraqi Music in a Time of War was excellent, but on repeated listens I find that I want to skip past the introductory comments. Also, the compositions he plays tend to be dances played on the oud, never my favorite style of oud playing (though he does it exceptionally well). It's a remarkable historical document when one considers it was recorded in New York city as the US invasion of Iraq was beginning, but this new studio recording is more completely satisfying.
― R_S (RSLaRue), Thursday, 2 November 2006 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― R_S (RSLaRue), Monday, 6 November 2006 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link
The first two discs of this box set, Al Tarab: Muscat Ud Festival, are exquisite. Unfortunately, the pieces for oud and orchestra together, which make up about half of the third disc and all of the fourth disc, aren't so exquisite.
― Rockist Scientist, Hippopoptimist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 10 February 2007 00:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Hippopoptimist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 10 February 2007 00:04 (seventeen years ago) link
Farid, with an overly rowdy audience, but this is some nice extended playing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NVl7SoXdF8&mode=related&search=
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Not extended technique, you know, but an extend passage. And as I always say, he does tend to play the same thing over and over, but it's better than saying the same thing over and over (from solo to solo), and he does it so well it kind of doesn't matter.
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Another satisfied audience.
Simon Shaheen/Ali Jihad Racy: Taqasim
wow, I have this! I like it. I also have a record by some Adel Salameh guy, called "Le Maitre d'Oud", so he must be very good.
At this stage I do not know enough about this style of music to be able to recognise good or bad playing of it.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 12 November 2007 15:52 (sixteen years ago) link
he does tend to play the same thing over and over, but it's better than saying the same thing over and over (from solo to solo)
I have no idea what this meant.
― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 12 November 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Rahim AlHaj has a new CD out, and it sounds pretty fantastic, judging by these clips:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/rahimalhaj5
Sorry to sound all street team about it, but I am just trying to point it out, and as I haven't even heard the whole thing myself, what am I going to say? Still, based on these clips, I'm completely confident this is an excellent recording.
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 17 November 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Extremists in Iraq literally destroying ouds
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/world/middleeast/01oud.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
Erica Goode, NY Times article excerpt: BAGHDAD — Dhia Jabbar hides his oud in a sack when he walks down the street in his Baghdad neighborhood.
An oud maker in his workshop in central Baghdad. Residents rarely play the oud in public now for fear of angering militants critical of secular music.
Dhia Jabbar, in Baghdad, was threatened by militiamen who destroyed another oud. He used to teach students in the back room of a photo shop, where the sound could not be heard. But last week, militia gunmen invaded the store, destroying one of his instruments and ordering him to stop teaching. He had dreamed of a performing career, but now he has lost hope.
“Iraq is dead,” he says.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 1 May 2008 13:48 (sixteen years ago) link
That is such a fucked up story. Total bummer.
― ian, Thursday, 1 May 2008 14:38 (sixteen years ago) link
Riad el Sounbati solo oud recordings back in print (and I will get this as soon as reasonably possible--maybe before reasonably possible, because man cannot live by bread alone):
http://www.buyarabic.com/storeItem.asp?ic=MUAR002427
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, new reissues (I assume they are reissues) of Ahmad El Hefnawi, Oum Kalthoum's brilliant primary violinist. I haven't confirmed yet whether these are solo recordings by him, or what, but if they are, that's another essential purchase.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Friday, 29 August 2008 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Apparently the answer is yes. I don't think I've ever seen solo Ahmad El Hefnawi available on CD, not since I've known who he was anyway.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Saturday, 30 August 2008 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
February 23
Oud Knights with Amina and Shayma: When Oud Speaks (female oud players from Bahrain) for free from 6 to 7 (and webcast and archived) at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington DC
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 05:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Férid Latrache
Oh good, another spelling to keep track of.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 20:34 (fourteen years ago) link
Very very brief oud solo in this Mohammed Abdo song (around 4:30?), but this is the kind of oud playing that khaleeji music is full of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlFy9-aNn3k
Sometimes it runs through entire songs, a more rhythmic, even percussive, oud sound.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Friday, 21 August 2009 18:18 (fourteen years ago) link
So I think there must be a lot of great oudists in the Gulf states whose names I do not know.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Friday, 21 August 2009 18:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Don't know who this is, but they sound great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQrTiXg7no
(I'm a bit baffled about country even, but I'm thinking North Africa or somewhere in the Gulf. Maybe Yemen.)
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 24 October 2009 05:30 (fourteen years ago) link
And the associated videos seem to be from Yemen, and here's another lightning-fast oudist from Yemen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU3Yue-dr-8&feature=related
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 24 October 2009 05:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Very cool looking electric oud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7f6zNzCfw
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 24 October 2009 07:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow, I've never seen one of those
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 24 October 2009 14:59 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/38841/simon-shaheen-at-the-atlas-performing-arts-center
― curmudgeon, Friday, 7 May 2010 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Washington Post's freelance reviewer M*rk J3nkins on Simon Shaheen live with photos
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/05/in_concert_simon_shaheen_at_th.html
― curmudgeon, Monday, 10 May 2010 18:40 (fourteen years ago) link
The latest issue of Signal to Noise has an extensive interview with Rahim Alhaj, who I see R.S. has mentioned a few times both upthread and elsewhere across ILM. I should have paid attention to your posts earlier, sir! The article (which was quite good) inspired me to seek out his music via iTunes/Amazon thanks to some leftover birthday gift credit and now I've got six of his eight American albums so far, all quite excellent though the solo performances are definitely the best to my ears. I'm very interested to sit down properly with his Little Earth collaborative project, the range of performers alone is striking.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Hey, don't be giving me an excuse to by Signal to Noise. I'm glad you are enjoying Rahim's music. Despite approach the third anniversary of my relocation to New Mexico, I have yet to see him perform live. I expect that will happen sooner or later.
Oddly, I think I first found out of him by way of a Christgau review (possibly posted or linked to on ILM).
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 20 March 2011 01:38 (thirteen years ago) link
When I talked with him (Rahim, not Christgau) in person once, he seemed pretty bored with the Smithsonian recording I was heaping praise on earlier. He's much more interested in doing something that is somehow new. Still, I don't hear anything else he's done as all that experimental. I'm not sure what to make of that. Possibly he has trouble breaking out of the classical tradition in which is so highly trained; but on the other hand, lacking music theory, I may simply not hear what's going on that is different in some of other recordings.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 20 March 2011 01:49 (thirteen years ago) link
There's actually quite a bit of discussion of theory and scale in the Signal to Noise piece I mentioned, and from the sound of it he found it an interesting challenge (probably for the very reasons you mentioned) with the Little Earth performers to see where such training and those of his collaborators didn't easily mesh.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 20 March 2011 04:10 (thirteen years ago) link
A generous selection of solo Riad El Sonbaty music available on Spotify, which is just what the doctor ordered for today. Maybe if I had listened to this first I would not have gone off at my Democratic partisan hack older brother.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 5 February 2012 00:49 (twelve years ago) link
Reposting without the link errors this time:
Simon Shaheen on the oud (2003) good interview- http://web.archive.org/web/20101228042512/http://www.afropop.org/multi/interview/ID/39/Simon+Shaheen+on+t
Waed Bouhassoun – Heritage Days: Concert of Traditional Music / Tribute to Syrian Cultural Heritage- https://www.francemusique.fr/emissions/programme-special/journees-du-patrimoine-concert-de-musiques-traditionnelles-hommage-au-patrimoine-culturel-syrien-12932
^ This French radio concert is still online (Music starts @ 3:00 mins in the show). From the blurb:"Waed Bouhassoun (voice & oud), with her poetic, intense and personal presence while remaining closer to the spirit of her country's music, we will share this program that she titled 'The soul of the lute'."
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 3 February 2019 07:48 (five years ago) link
And random clips
Simon Shaheen & Rima Khcheichhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9WHeKntZq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-wS9e1KFhY
Bouhassoun was interviewed (with flutist Naïssam Jalal) about how Syrian musicians have coped with the destruction in their country:
- https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.franceculture.fr%2Femissions%2Flactualite-musicale%2Fsyrie-que-faire-quand-est-musicien / (Original in French)
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 3 February 2019 07:50 (five years ago) link