Reprinted from Green Man Review.
Let me begin this review by warning you that the Three Musketeers referred to in the title of this CD are definitely not Athos, Porthos and Aramis from the Alexandre Dumas novel of the same name. These three Musketeers are Zakariyya Ahmad, Muhammad al-Qasabji and Riyad al-Sunbati, composers of Egyptian popular music. They all were born in the late 19th century and lived well into the 20th, witnessing and no doubt participating in the turbulent emergence of the modern Egyptian state. They all wrote music that was performed by the revered chanteuse Umm Kulthum.
I’ve already reviewed another CD from this series, Soul of a People, featuring the compositions of Sheikh Sayyed Darweesh performed by the Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble. The performers on this CD include a number of the same people — Youssef Kassab on vocals, Hicham Chami on qanun, Michel Merhej Baklouk on percussion, Hanna Khoury on violin, Kinan Abou-Afach on cello, Isam Rafeh on oud and Moslem Rahhal on nay. All three of the composers featured on this CD apparently knew and admired Darweesh (who was their contemporary but died much earlier, in 1923).
The Music of the Three Musketeers includes seven tracks, varying in length from four to 10 minutes, for a total run time of just over 47 minutes. Yes, I would have loved to have three or four more pieces added to this CD. I am always in favor of having access to more good music! This is particularly the case because this small number of works is divided among the three composers, with the result that each composer is featured on no more than three tracks. The producers also failed to organize the tracks by composer, challenging the listener less than intimately familiar with this kind of music to hear the differences among the composers’ styles. It’s also unfortunate that the singer on these renditions is a man rather than a woman, meaning that the songs don’t have quite the same impact as they would have to the Egyptians listening to Umm Kulthum sing them on her weekly radio concerts. On the plus side, the CD has extensive liner notes, including biographical information about the composers and Umm Kulthum as well as song lyrics (by the poets Ahmad Rami and Bayram al-Tunsi) in Arabic script and English.
I am, at this point in my life, so totally steeped in early-20th-century Egyptian culture that I can hardly listen to this music with a critical ear. I could listen to it for hours and hours! About the closest comparison I can make to any performance that might be familiar to GMR readers is the magnificent instrumental portion of ‘Kashmir’ on the Jimmy Page-Robert Plant No Quarter collaboration. I find the use of strings and percussion with the Middle Eastern scale very evocative.
Among its other projects, Chicago-based Xauen Music produces and distributes recorded music from a number of Middle Eastern cultures, including Arabic, Turkish, Armenian and Sephardic. If I could magically transport myself to Chicago (a flying carpet would do nicely), I would certainly be a regular at the live performances sponsored by this organization.
(Xauen, 2008)
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