-Mohammed Abdu AKA The Arab continent's singer
-Fairouz(Some spell her name as Fairuz)
-Sabah Al-Shahrora AKA Sabah The Mockingbird
-Asmahan
-Samira Tawfiq & Talal Maddah
-Abdul Halim Hafez
-Laila Murad - If I'm not mistaken, this is the most famous Jewish singer of the Arab continent, correct me If I'm mistaken, Priceless.
-Abu Baker Salem - My FAVE Arabic vocalist,,,they should've called him the superior!
-Ahlam - The Queen Of The Khaliji Music,,,,which I STRONGLY beg to differ but none the less a BAD ass!
-Nowal Al-Kuwaitia

There's a WHOLE world to discuss in Arabic music. As diverse the people of this board are, I don't think alot of them are exposed to this kind of music.

Call me deranged, butI personaly think there's a REAL fine missing link between gospel(black music in general - for lack of a better term anyway) and Arabic music(not in a religious sense) but when it comes their improvisations, call & response shouts, heavy use of percussions, handsclaps and feet stomps and not to mention that heavy deep melancholy feel to their voices.

Esp for heartbeatocean edit
[Edited 11/28/06 8:20am]

You´re not deranged, African-American music and Arabic music ( and Turkish music and even Greek music to some extent) do have a lot in common, especially the things you mentioned above. There´s a book by an American scholar about this, how the blues developed and about its roots in the Middle Eastern music culture but I don´t remember the name.
It´s also interesting that a lot of Arabs and Turks in Europe are very fond of African-American music and culture and perhaps vice versa. This goes waaay back....

Keep in mind that a lot of slaves were descendants from Muslim African tribes from countries like Senegal or the northern parts of Nigeria. And drums , especially the darbuka, were sort of brought to Europe by Arabs and Turks.
The brand Zildjian for instance ( famous maker of cymbals ) has its roots in Turkey, the Zildjian family was an Armenian family specialised in making drums and cymbals ( zil, and zildshi means bell or cymbalmaker , hence Zildjian).

Especially the kind of music known as Arabesk in the Middle East has a lot of similarities with the blues...to a point where some enthusiasts get so depressed that they commit suicide while listening to it.

i am not talking exact facts, but there ARE a lot of similarities between Gospel & Khaleeji music in particular if you give it some thinking:

The process of song making is often the same, it usually starts with a finely written poetry (esp. 4 Mawwal), which then an artist/composer try to visual through a fitting melody that's based on certain type of music (Hijazy/Khbaity/Hadramy etc), then he practices it vocally with the singer till they feel like it finally hit home (a recording is often kept here), a live band is then called in to practice along and then the session starts with the final cut is taken

Mohammad Abdu though is the ONLY artist left who still go for the real old method which is after practing it he goes on concert and records a LIVE version of the song (e.g. most of his catalogue, plus El-Amaken very recently). You rarely find a studio version from him.

Besides Khaleeji, it's old school Fairous (with her husband Assi and his brother Mansour, before her son Ziad started producing her), Om Kulthoum's entire catalogue, and old school Warda.

Other singers (e.g Abdulhaleem) were often recording in a studio so the songs would be used for films

I hope that's close enough to your point, without me digressing much
[Edited 11/26/06 12:43pm]

Several years ago, my husband became really interested in the Arabic culture. He taught himself to read and write Arabic. He's forgotten much of it now, but can still speak it. I just looked at his tape collection and he's got a few tapes of music, but I couldn't tell you who they were by since they are written in Arabic.

He was listening to one song in particular a lot when I was pregnant with our second son. I don't remember what it was about, but the singer kept singing about "Zaina." We wanted to name our baby that if we had a girl. We ended up having another boy.

So when I had our third child, and she was a girl, my husband insisted on naming her an Arabic name. By that time, I was stuck on Zaina, but we went with Naiema instead.

Well, that's my contribution to this thread. I don't know anything about Arabic music, but my husband certainly does. All I can say, is I've heard lots of it.

yes


Warda, abdel halim hafez, fairouz, oum kalsoum


the old classics of the 40's etc
[Edited 11/26/06 12:48pm]

I love Arabic music. I don't know the names, except Oum Kalthoum. It represents my relationship and experience with the Middle East. I have precious memories associated with it. I find it interesting that a lot of Egyptian music uses a western-style string orchestra, adopting it for its own forms...kind of the way the Egyptians adopted Hollywood cinema for its own expression.

KoolEaze said:

there is also the strong influence Arab cultures had on Spain after the Moor invasion. style of art, music and some words kept into the Spainish culture. Spain had large slave populations in the new world.

On a side note, this is Fairouz and her daughter Rima (Btw, Fairouz pre nose job)

Kooleaze: Intersting takes

dustysgirl: The only by the title of "Zaina" I'm fimiliar with is by Shadia and Farid Al-Atrach if I could find it online, I would def share it with you.

PrincelessHo:

Don't 4get about Abu-Baker Salem he really took the term "spontaneity" into another universe, and for a 70 years old singer, he hasn't lost that spontaneity. Like Abdu, he stayed true to the "Folk" tradition of Arabic music(esp the southern culture of the Arabic island: al-dan and the ones you mentioned).

I believe that he has been making music since 1956,,,,he still look youthful(a lil' chubby but still youthful)

Speaking of Khaliji music(esp SOUTHERN Khaliji music) and church. Some of the songs I heard by Abu Baker Salem sounds exactly like a ritual congregation,,,alot of people shouting at the end of song, clapping and doing what you call a "zagrooda" I don't know what does that shout called in English(BTW Prince used it in some of his songs @ the early 90's but there weren't live and spontanous like the ones I heard in Salem's music).

The thing I also noticed about Khaliji music esp the background singers(or the CHORAL as they are called, still) is the pronounced separation between the female vocalists and the male vocalists, you can notice that ALOT in the songs pre-80's,,,as if each of them have a different task as any instrument in the orchestra does

As for Fairouz, she's my FAVE vocalist along with Billie Holiday. You can hear alot of sadness in her voice(and see it in her face) but you don't know what the hell is her story,,,,she's one of those people who fought aggressively for her personal life, I guess.

Can you put names with the photos above? It would help us learn who these people are...

I have been getting into Arabic music as of late.

I picked up a few albums by Azam Ali, Khaled, and this composer whose named escapes me. I especially like the Iranian music!

Harlepolis said:

That would be cool. It's been 10 years since I heard it. The tape he had it on, was lost years ago.

Before i go deeper & speaking of Zaghroda, did you notice that even Mariah used it in her Rick James' production (All My Life from Glitter)??

I swear this woman does have Arab acquaintences: Sultan of Brunei's son who regularly sends her gifts on B.Days, the mysterious Hajji Saleh (mentioned in Charmbracelet's liner notes), Jamilah Mohammad (linger notes of Debut & Emotions), and finally the Moroccoan room at her house!

Harlepolis said:

That's true. Hadramout has a lot of rituals of that sort. My mother knows a lot of Hadrami women, and attended several of their weddings/gatherings which all had loads of ritual with hundereds of women "doing bizarre things" as my mom put it LOL one of them even invited her to join in this circle of women shouting around a bakhour vase, which led my mom to find her way out of the house in an eye blink





I'm so IMPRESSED you noticed that (which implies you DID dig hella deep into Khaleeji music)

I love those vocals esp. in M.Abdu's earlier work, and 2 show ya how much i LOVE that style: whenever i'm singing along 2 them i do the female parts in a higher pitch =D
[Edited 11/27/06 15:38pm]

I love arabic music too. I don't understand any of it but I like the beats and rhythms.

I live in the United Arab Emirates, so I am exposed to all kinds of arabic music on a daily basis.
I think the music is very nice and I especially like Majda Rumi.
I think Umm Koulthum is amazing as well.

I have to say though that you got to add Iranian and Turkish music to this as well.
There are some really awesome Iranian and Turkish singers.
Not the new stuff at all, but if you go back to the 70s, you will find a whole lot of good ones, with amazing voices and instruments.

Khaleeji music is actually a mix of portuguese (black) slave music, Iranian and Arabic music.
You should listen to "Bandari" music, very nice, amazing beats and nice melody.
But try to find the old stuff.
Always better.

PricelessHo said:

Btw, what exactly does Jamilah Mohammad do? (Sorry i'm not arsed 2 go check out the liner notes LOL)

PricelessHo said:

She's a session musician(singer) I think I've read about her doing Jazz gigs here and there long time ago but thats about it.

There was a very good soundtrack of Brasilian "novela" called "O Clone" (The Clone) that had some marvellous arabic artists and tunes. My mom loved it!



Personnally I only some tunes from Cheb Mani and other arabic french artists that the french MCM music channel played!

MikeMatronik said:

You mean Cheb Mami, right? The one who sang with Sting in "Desert Rose"?

Thats a bad ass vocalist,,,another Arabic French vocalist who's not to be sniffed @ is Cheb Khalid, he's the one who put the Algerian music on the map

Harlepolis said:

Thanks 4 the correction Harlepolis. Khalid has some great songs.

In France I think they call the music style, "Rai" or something like that.

I wished I more time (and money!) to explore more music
[Edited 12/1/06 9:04am]

MikeMatronik said:

Yep, its Rai music. But Rai purists oppose the new direction that its going becoz originaly its traditional Arabic music, it didn't have the "Western" elements that came after Khalid, Mami and them.

Harlepolis said:

That resistance always happens when a genre goes mainstream. Still Rai music is huge in France.

Btw, Harle

did you know Abadi Al-Jowhar's wife has passed away a few weeks ago?

now that guy's ALREADY melancholy as it gets on his songs, so i can't imagine how his future material is going to sound, but i sure as hell know it ain't going to be easy

PricelessHo said:

What happend?

Here's the article (check out the date of her death)

http://www.sayidaty.net/N...3&MenuID=1

does Tarkan count in this genre

ehuffnsd said:

considering there's some mutual inflence between Arabic & Turkish music i'd say pretty much yes. They also cover each other's song too, esp. the youngins

Tarkan gave us some great songs.

nevermind
[Edited 12/4/06 5:15am]