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,

If you have not read it, Virginia Danielson's Voice of Egypt provides a good orientation. Also, her dissertation (that the book is based on) includes an appendix which attempts to list all the songs Oum Kalthoum performed, with some basic information about them (lyricist/poet, composer, maqam, date of first performance).

But that Nizar Nasser channel takes it all to another level in terms of collecting live recordings. I just wish it had information in English.

I became a pretty big fan after reading this thread 7 or 8 years ago. I looked at a random tv show clip in black and white and abysmal sound and it pushed all my buttons, hairs standing on end. She's the real thing, no doubt.

Ha, this is my experience too. Knew nothing about her until this thread, still know pretty much nothing except that I love her.

She is really on fire early on, in this performance of Zikrayat that I've never heard before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsHh1IdXfJ4

Control = Passion

The downtempo passage that starts about 30 minutes in.

!

Ana Fi Intazarak (not the one available as a commercial CD), with some very interesting discussion:

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

(I mean, not the performance. Obviously it's the same song.)

http://www.nmwa.org/events/cultural-capital-homage-umm-kulthum

Special tribute concert and panel at the National Museum of women in the Arts in Washington DC July 10 from 3 to 5 pm

This Cultural Capital session honors Egyptian contralto singer and songwriter Umm Kulthum (ca. 1904–1975). Frequently referred to as the “Voice of Egypt” or the “Star of the East,” Kulthum remains an unprecedented icon of the Arab world. Her influence and image continue to resonate, inspiring musicians and artists alike.

The day features performances in Arabic from Kulthum’s beloved repertoire, and a moderated conversation about the social and political context in which Kulthum became the “Diva of Arabic Song,” during some of the most significant historical events in Egypt and the Arab World in the 20th century.

PERFORMERS & SPEAKERS
Huda Asfour, performer and composer
Lubana Al Quntar, soprano
Laura Lohman, associate professor of music, California State University, Fullerton
Hazami Sayed, executive director, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, Philadelphia
Lyne Sneige (moderator), director, Arts & Culture Program, Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C.
A reception will follow the performances and moderated conversations. Special tours of She Who Tells a Story: Women from Iran and the Arab World will be offered prior to the program starting at 2 p.m.

I've only really become aware of هو صحيح الهوى غلاب Howa (Huwa, Hoa, Howwa) Sahih (despite hearing excerpts from it ages ago), relatively recently. I read in a youtube comment that this was a piece written by Zakarya Ahmed ten years after his falling out with Oum Kalthoum. Confirmed here:

http://www.masress.com/en/ahramonline/62700

I knew she had successfully sued him for performing a song she had previously recorded, that he had written for her, but I don't remember being aware that they had ever reconciled. And then he died a year after he wrote this song, which has to be one of the best of her later career period.

(Not pretending to know Arabic, but using Arabic script is generally the most effective way to do title searches.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br8spJQxkHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZExzpfxCiWQ

Had posted at least some of this song earlier in the thread, with an especially famous passage of improvisation ("Nazra," etc.) from one of her post-Six Day War concerts in North Africa.

I think this is the main recording and I think it's better than the two I just posted above, overall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaVCd3XZWwE

Not sure who messed up at 46:11 in that 1968 performance. She seems to jump the gun though.

Wait. No. It's not just my imagination. Embedded youtube videos are getting bigger.

46:40 - Okay, she just shut me up with that.

And everything that has followed, so far.

(On further listening, I'll take this "68 version, but I think there may be a couple different early 60s versions floating around even on Spotify, unless I'm getting it mixed up with a different song.)

I didn't realize that Neal Cassady was a regular poster here. I just assumed he was someone just stopping in at this thread. I should really read the rolling post-Fahey etc. etc. thread since some of it would interest me.

I have several Nagat cassettes I used to listen to pretty regularly at one time (back when I listened to a lot of Warda).

More Howa Sahih (thanks to the great Nizar Nasser channel):

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

Not sure who messed up at 46:11 in that 1968 performance. She seems to jump the gun though.

On further listening, I think what happens is that she decides to switch directions at the last minute and the accompaniment doesn't follow it. Based on what follows, it seems that she had gotten an inspiration. It is quite abrupt though.

needed to be a poll

A poll for me alone.

I strongly suspect this Nizar Nasser who has a youtube channel full of Oum Kalthoum recordings is a descendant of Gamal Abdel Nasser, which would explain his access to so many rare recordings.

Sounds like a good guess.

I'm not surprised that there are so many great performances of her songs, but I'm a little surprised by how many of the 60s performances hark back to the her more tarab-oriented 40s and 50s approach. Hearing her 60s versions of older songs actually increases my esteem for her, if that's possible. As I've often said, overall I have less use for her 60s (especially mid-to-late) and 70s songs, but now her 60s career is more fully fleshed out by live recordings.

Less than fabulous audio, but a great performance of Sahran Lewahdi, different from the one on CD:

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

I like much of what I hear here, but I haven't found the time to really listen a lot. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.

I don't know if I'm doing any heavy lifting, but glad you find it useful.

I don't think I've ever heard anything like this before. It appears to be one concert where she sings three different songs back to back (more or less). I think she introduces the last song as well, but I'm not sure. I am not that confident of recognizing her speaking voice. Two of my favorite songs included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXsP_Kk9Hpk

I plan on finally trying to listen to a list of (more or less) all her songs, which should be possible between Spotify and youtube. However, a lot has gone missing from Spotify. I don't know how much of it was just duplicate copies of things, but I think some of it might not have been.

(I do take breaks from listening to her. The heaviness can be too much after a certain point. I've tried listening to different version of Sahran Lewahdi back to back and it's just too much wailing for me at one sitting, to be honest.)

I don't think I've ever heard her introduce a song before, if that's what's happening before the third track (Ana Fi Intazark), in the video above. This makes me want to hear more from the mid-40s. The concert sounds quite intimate compared to what came later, though maybe not more than others I've heard from this time-frame.

Another fine ياظالمني (Ya Zalamny), such a great piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pB4cFbJ3UE

Segment of the very upbeat film song Ghannili Sheway Sheway, apparently with audience sing-along, unless she had a chorus with her for this song, but seems like an audience thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFaMeMfd-s

Please ban from the internet the person leaving one thumbs down on a lot of these videos.

Terrific photo of Oum Kalthoum with Fairouz

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e5/1b/4a/e51b4a852c0458ad80039d8a8a6e43f1.jpg

Have not linked to this lately (or possibly ever). A "reasonably complete" list of her songs:

http://almashriq.hiof.no/egypt/700/780/umKoulthoum/Songs/

I think this is the same as what's in an appendix of Virginia Louise Danielson's thesis.

Another performance of Ya Zalamni. It's such a privilege to hear how she varied the performance for some of these songs from concert to concert. Much of her improvising here goes in very different directions than the main recording I'm familir with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MbOBC5eggc

It looks like I have somehow never mentioned Awedt Einy on this thread, unless I gave it some sort of spelling I can't currently remember. Just bookmarked a search on recordings of this song which is somewhat similar to Ya Zalamni (and came out at around the same time I think). So far, so good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2QcRYmLzEk

Just amazing to be able to hear all of this.

(I've never said it before but Oum Kalthoum's kanunist looks like a character actor.)

Instrumental jazz cover of Baligh Hamdi's Alf Layla Wa Layla (late career Oum Kalthoum song) that I missed last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUa_srT-uL8

I miss the extremely varied orchestration of the original. One of the enjoyable things about late period Oum Kalthoum songs is that they tend to have a wide sound palate in performance, so you get some electric gutiar, some accordion, some saxophone, etc. along with the core of her orchestra.

The original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul4z6sLnXYY

Sorry but not finding the Maalouf too exciting.

I also really like the emphatic quality of the strings on the Oum Kalthoum Alf Lyla recording (I was thinking "strident" but then I listened again and it's not quite strident). And the bent notes on electric guitar, few though they are.

You watnt to do a contemporary instrumental of a Baligh Hamdi song? Maybe you should try some sort of maximalist electric and electronic approach. (Not that there aren't some good melodies that can be worked with in a fairly straight form, but I think maybe the emphasis should be on worked with, rather than just following the way the songs play out when sung.)

جددت حبك ليه / Gadedt Hobak Leh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1aTQHWoT98

This kind of goes on and on but it's wonderful. In recordings from this time period, the sound of her voice as such is often enough to keep me absorbed. I think my CD copy of a version of it has a transliteration that includes an unpronounceably consonant-laden initial word.

Fun concert footage of Howwa Sahih, partly for all the audience shots. I'm guessing this is an Egyptian audience because while they are certainly engaged, they also seem kind of relaxed, not like the over the top audiences she often had when she toured other countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZIq9bcmhEc

The oudist sitting behind her is Mohamed El Qasabji, who composed so many of her early songs, but stayed with her orchestra well past the point he was still writing for her.

It's also a pretty straight delivery of a song she can be heard to play around with a lot more in other recordings I linked to above. It seems like there is a little more emphasis here on delivering the text, and less focus on tarab, to the extent I can make that sort of judgment without even being able to understand the words.

(And I wanted to go to bed early but I might just stay up and listen to the rest of this.)

Well, this is good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIo_N8KIZec

This looks like it's a playlist entirely devoted to Ya Zalamny but I haven't heard most of it yet. Paradise on earth. If I saw it before, why has it taken me this long to get to it.

Woo Hoo!

The fourth performance on that playlist has some phenomenal instrumental soloing toward the end. It's great to hear some of the key accompanists stretch out more than they often have the chance to do. The concert ends up feeling very distinctive. Crowd is completely nuts.

The oudist almost never takes solos, and here he is laying down this amazing takasim.

Needles to say, she had nothing but the best musicians in her orchestra, especially in lead roles.

This fifth performance, she is messing with the audience's head early on. I think she's working in an unexpected modulation to a different maqam, but not even during an unmetered section where improvisation is more expected. Really interesting stuff. I wasn't as taken with the second and third performances on this playlist.