Oct 31/06
Hallowe’en on the Nubian Nile
I was trying to think of something to post today when a search on Calabash brought me to Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy.
The track is appropriately titled, but beyond that it got me thinking about the “creepy” nature of instrumental Egyptian music, or rather how the melodies and scales often sound, well, scary to my Western ears.
For example, the tunes on Mahmoud Fadl‘s album, Umm Kalthum, sound like they could accompany the scene where the blonde girl gets killed in any good horror movie. Listen to today’s track and tell me you don’t picture Dracula lurking in the shadows or murderers, clutching daggers, creeping up on their prey.
Trick-or-treating in Cairo would probably be a pretty wild experience if you worked the right angle. Ben, Murial, you got your pumpkins carved and faces painted? You know I do here in costume-unfriendly Paris.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Hossam Ramzy – Halloween
Mahmoud Fadl – Siret el Hobb
The musics are great
Ramzy has done a great darabuka tutorial if you can still get hold of it.
As a player, if not a master, its nice to hear the unadorned tabla saieedi
Hey man, I grew up in Cairo, and went trick-or-treating a bunch…and to me, Western classical music with it’s contrived, rigid sense of tonality sounds scary. word
negmedeen, where’d you go trick-or-treating in Cairo? That’s awesome… and you’re right about Western classical music. ha. you got me laughing in the morning. Thanks