Bellydancing and the Blues

If you haven't heard all about it yet, Guy Schalom - talented darabuka player, dancer and leader of the Baladi Blues Ensemble - recently recorded a programme for BBC Radio 4 all about traditional Baladi Egyptian music and dance.

Bellydancing and the Blues

Bellydancing and the Blues was broadcast on Boxing Day at the end of last year.  The good news for anyone who didn't manage to tune in on the day is that the programme is available to listen again on BBC iPlayer on a permanent basis.  

The is an insightful documentary about a traditional form of Egyptian music and dance and how both developed and grew through interplay between east and west.  There are some fascinating contributions from distinguished musicians and dancers from Germany, the UK and Egypt including Raqs Sharqi Society trained Jane Wass, music producer Jennifer Carmen and Egyptian accordion master Sheik Taha.  I particularly loved hearing a different spin presented to the history of belly dancing past and present.  And as a real bonus, the whole show is ornamented with musical excerpts of beautiful Egyptian music, including from Guy's own Baladi Blues series of CDs. 

Guy Schalom

Here's an extract from the blurb on the BBC website:

"Dancer and drummer Guy Schalom hunts out the spirit of the new Egypt in one of its biggest cultural exports. To our ears, Baladi is the music of the bellydancer - kitsch and mock-Arab. But in its true form it is the essence of Egypt, 'of the country', 'home' in the deepest sense..."

To listen to the programme in full go to BBC iPlayer. 

Profiting From Others

Recently, I was offered for sale a homemade CD from a local belly dancer.  It was a compilation featuring a variety of oriental music, sold in a plastic sleeve with a photo of the dancer, and with no track listing or other information. 

At £10 a CD, it's obviously a nice way of supplementing a dancer's income, particularly at workshops where eager students can clamber to purchase the track used in the class.  But this brings with it unfortunate consequences.

I can try to explain more about the implications of music piracy, but it's probably better to watch Beata Cifuentes, one of the victims of this type of crime, explaining for himself.  



If you want to understand more about how much of the heart and soul of an artist goes into producing original oriental music, I would also recommend reading Yasmina of Cairo's article in this months NADA magazine.

Finally, this is one of my favourite CDs:

This music was produced by Jennifer Carmen of Layali El Sharq music.  One of the tracks is a beautiful Baladi accordion progression, played by Sheikh Taha (for more about Sheikh Taha read the latest issue of Mosaic magazine). Last month, I watched an experienced professional performer dance a lovely rendition to this very piece.  I  approached the performer later that evening to speak to her about what is one of my favourite pieces of music.  But I quickly discovered that she wasn't even aware of where the music had come from, let alone know the name of the artist.  And she was far from understanding the story behind it (which you can read here). 

In the Arabic Dance world, performers are increasingly conscious of finding out exactly what style they are dancing to, ensuring that they understand the lyrics and are sensitive to the culture which the music comes from.  So why should so many of these same artists have no reservation about disrespecting the artistry and hard work that goes into producing the very recordings that they dance to?

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Classical Music for Egyptian Dance

Some of my students have been asking about which CDs I use in class and where to buy music.

So this blog entry is simply to highlight a handful of my favourite CDs focusing here on Classical Egyptian music, together with some handy links to where you might be able to purchase them from.  I've picked Classical for this blog as I recently used some of the tracks from these albums in my Golden Age workshop.

One of my all time Classical favourites is the "Layali El Sharq Ensemble Live, Classical Egyptian Music for Raqs Sharqi".

This double CD consists of live recordings from the 1980s of the Layali El Sharq Ensemble, a group of Egyptian musicians based in London and brought together by producer Jennifer Carmen, to tour with Egyptian dancer Suraya Hilal.  There are a beautiful selection of tracks to listen or perform to including beautiful songs like Raqs El Gamal, Tamra Henna, compositions by Mohammed Abdul Wahab, Farid El Atrash, and the Rahbani brothers, as well as taqsims and tabla solos. 

I find that the beauty of these recordings is in the balance between the different musicians.  This results in a production so very different from the more modern CDs made for Egyptian dancers which I find to often be overly dominated by percussion and keyboard.  There is simply space to hear the purer melodies of classical instruments like Violin, Qanun, Nai to be heard.

You can order this CD direct from Layali El Sharq Music.  You can also buy this from the Raqs Sharqi Society. 

Another CD I use, which contains live recordings of Classical pieces is called "Jewels".

These tracks are also taken from productions of Suraya Hilal's work, although a slightly later period than the Layali El Sharq album.  And, although there are a number tracks in common for both CDs I consider this to also be a worthy addition to the collection as I find the recordings to be slightly better quality.  You can order this CD from Tanz Raum. 

Hossam Ramzy has also produced some classical CDs.  The version of the song "Aziza" which I used in my workshop comes from the CD "Best of Mohammed Abdul Wahab".

This is a useful CD for some timeless popular tracks which are a good length for performance.  This can be purchased direct from the Hossam Ramzy online store and should be widely available from a number of other UK stockists, including as part of a double CD with the Best of Om Kolthoum, available from Aladdin's Cave.  

Finally, one of my brand new purchases is a live recording from a concert and Dance performance in Paris by Raqs Sharqi dancers Anne Benveniste and Lillian Malki - un "hommage à Mohamed Abdel Wahab".

This is a box set containing a DVD and CD.  I have listened to the CD over and over as it contains some beautiful versions of a number of classic tracks like Enta Omri and We Daret al Ayam.  This production is available to purchase direct from Anne, although I bought my copy from the Raqs Sharqi Society. 

Happy listening!

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