Artist : Salah Ragab And The Cairo Jazz Band
Title : Egyptian Jazz
Genre : Jazz
Year : 2006
Date : 03/2008
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 07
Label : Art Yard LP006
Source : Vinyl
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 39:03 min
Size : 51,6 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.ramadan in space time 04:11
02.dawn 08:04
03.neveen 07:52
04.egypt strut 04:53
05.oriental mood 04:45
06.kleopatra 05:06
07.mervat 04:12
-------
39:03 min
Given the interconnected world in which we now live,
it's becoming an increasingly rare commodity for any
music to remain under the radar longer than it take
a Myspace page to creakily upload. Yet whilst access
to such vast tributaries of music is undoubtedly a good
thing, it can take the fun out of hunting down long lost
gems and bijou classics - with everything long dissected
and consumed by the broiling blog community.
It therefore comes with great pleasure to introduce a
genuine find that will have your ears blossoming with dusty
joy, as Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band create the
kind of music which is vital, immediate and swelling with
energy and scope.
Recorded in Heliopolis Egypt between 1968 and 1973,
'Egyptian Jazz' sees the seamless knitting of cultural maxims
- with the musical traditions of the North Arabian region of
Africa overlapping Western jazz to intoxicating effect.
Chief of the Military Music Department, Salah Ragab had
at his disposal a vast retinue of musicians (almost 3,000!)
all versed in the aural language of marches and national
anthems, but with little knowledge of the more fluid aspects
of contemporary jazz.
From this foundation Ragab went on to carve a sound that
is at once familiar and completely alien, using his own skills
on the drums to inform and sculpt the vivacious music on
offer. Unreasonably broad in its scope, 'Egyptian Jazz' is
pin-point accurate in identifying the kernel of inspiration that
grants a given composition its particular magic - with the
twenty-five or so musicians involved granted the enviable
position of full-time jazz mercenaries by the military top-brass.
Intuitive and dripping in talent, the opening 'Ramadan In Space
Time' sets out the forthcoming stall perfectly - as a traditional
Baza drum rattles into life and soon becomes engulfed by
stomping percussion and the kind of ribald horns that
simultaneously combine upfront bluster and emotional nuance.
Next up is the similarly addictive 'Dawn', wherein a religious trac
is reimagined through a 6/8 rhythm and throbbing horns that
will raise the temperature to well beyond humid in all but the
coldest of souls. From here the treats keep coming thick and
fast, with 'Neveen' (featuring Ragab's then six year old daughter
on bass) bursting into life atop a sparkling compote of traditional
and New York-rooted percussion, 'Oriental Mood' looks to the
far-east for inspiration, whilst 'Kleopatra' pays homage to the
eponymous subject with a gorgeous flutter of horns and pattering
rhythms.
With an an obvious highpoint amongst an album of peaks being
the joyful 'Egypt Stut', Salah Ragab and The Cario Jazz Band
have crafted an album that is an unbridled pleasure from
beginning to end. King Tut!