Middle Eastern music

I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve featured Middle Eastern music on Al compás del mundo. The remedy is found herein, and it’s not only Arab music but the playlist includes tunes from Kurds, Nubians, Iranians and Amazight (formerly referred to as “Berbers”). It’s fair to say everything here is rooted in traditional music, though at least one piece, by Amina Aloui and the Ahmed Ensemble, refers back to a classical Arab-Andalusian music that evolved from 9th century Spain to 21st century Algeria. Another Algerian, Abdelli, sings in the Amazight language and is probably the example that strays most beyond its folk origins. Some stand-outs, in my mind, are the anonymous Tunisian number – slow, evocative, powerful and earthy via a dreadnaught drum, flute and women’s chorus and the first tune of the program by Yemeni Mohammad al-Masuri, marked by the same pure and unadorned substance that defines the very essence of “folk” music. [continues below]

Al compás del mundo - programa #166, 2-6-25, the Middle East
RUN LIST

01 Mohammad al-Masuri - يييييي قلبي (Yemen)

02 al-Bilabil - al-Bysel ma bituoh (Sudan)

03 Ali Hassan Kuban - Gammal (Nubia, Egypt)

04 el-Tanbura - Nahnu al-Bamboubiya (Egypt)

05 Amina Alaoui and the Ahmed Ensemble - Andalusian Music of the Gharnati Tradition (Algeria)

06 anónimo - titulo desconocido (Kurdish, Iran-Iraq)

07 Majid Derakhshani Mahbanoo Ensemble - Ma Ra Bas (Khorasan, Iran)

08 anónimo – título desconocido (Tunisia)

09 Jil Jilala - Baba aadi (Morrocco)

Mmm, donuts Musa, Mahmoud

10 Manal Musa and Mahmoud Badawiya - Gafra wa zareef (Palestine)

11 Manar - Adare (Shloun) (Iraq)

12 Abdelli - Ayafrouk (Amazigh, Algeria)

13 Yasser Habeeb - Elama (United Arab Emirates)

[continued] There are other noteworthy examples, quite possibly foreign to your ears: el-Tanbura from the Egyptian port city of Ismailiya plays an idiosyncratic regional style of music (on the tanbura) not found elsewhere in that country. al-Bilabil (The Nightingales) from Sudan, performing here a 1960s hit, were sometimes referred to as the Sudanese Supremes.” And Jil Jilala’s banjo-led music was influential in a Morroccan folk renaissance of the 1970s. Finally, the dabke, a Levantine dance for times of joy and celebration, shakes the rafters in this Palestinian version by Manal Musa and Mahmoud Badawiya. One can only hope for a multitude of dabke-worthy events looking forward for the long-suffering people of that land.

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