Customer Reviews

Baghdad Lute

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am not as expert as many of the other reviewers are on oud playing. I have listened to a fair number of players and like many of the reviewers below, I was surprised at the playing on this disc. This music does not fit the stereotype of Near Eastern music- in point of fact, in many ways this disc is more reminiscent of a bravura recital by a musician from the Western classical music tradition.
The lute playing to my ears in nontraditional. Naseer Shamma's style incorporates techniques from many different instruments not least classical and flamenco guitar strumming techniques. The harmonic base is traditional to the Iraqi school of oud playing and is wonderfully interesting to these jaded Western ears.
One last note- there is one way that I would like to take exception to many of the reviewers below. I bought this album, as I frequently do, sound unheard and listened to it without benefit of much on the information below as to the stories behind the songs. This music stands alone. I fell in love with it before I read of Naseer Shamma's attempts to convey stories of the Gulf War. The piece about the bombing of the orphanage is quite obviously about something like that and belongs to the international tradition of protest music that uses instrumental sound effects to convey horror- does anyone else remember Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner during the Vietnam war?
Enjoy this album as pure music or enjoy it as protest or both.
What we do have here is a innovative musician steeped in an ancient tradition conveying the vitality of that traditon for the present day. The fact that he is from a nation whose government my government is trying to demonize is perhaps a bonus in that it helps to remind us that behind the Iraqi government is a people from whom we have much to learn and whom remain our brothers and sisters.

NASEER SHAMMA, one of the greatest lute soloist players in the world, Came out of a school that dats back to 2350 BC from MESOPOTAMIA. NASEER a native babylonian from IRAQ has nine (9) music pieces in this CD all composed by him & each of them has a story to go with, he play them live on stage, showing his style and a very nice music rhythm to them. In track 6 on this CD which is called (Babylonian prayer) played in pentatonic scale he put you in a pryer atmosphere creating what might have been a Babylonian music in ancient times, his inspration was a Babylonian bas-relief. track 9 is a very famous iraqi golfwar tragedy, A shelter with a number of kids taken refuge was bombed killing every one, NASEER play this piece as a soundtrack to this tragedy telling it in music how it happened. track 1 is called Memories, track 2 is An oriental love story( qissat hubb sharqyya),track 3 is Soft breezes(a dansing peice), track 4 is A quiet night in baghdad ( didn't have a lot of in the past years), track 5 called from Ashur to Seville (ASHUR the great king of ASSYRIA the king of the world),track 7 iraqi song (an improvisation in maqam bastanikar purely oriental in nature and typical of traditional music from Iraq) track 8 is a Dialogue between two great Iraqi poets El Mutanabbi and El Sayyab ( This dialogue between old and new, tradition and modernism EL Mutanabbi of an Abasid poet of the golden age & El Sayyab (1926-1964)...

It is very a nice music stories, I recommend this CD to every one that loves lute or just love music in general it is a wonderful CD. all the best to you Naseer! ps: we need more lute cd's of you on Amazon.com!

I've noticed that some people wrote thier reviews without truly understanding what Naseer's music is all about.. Mr. Shamma's style is very different than any other solo artist, he tends to tell a story is every one of his master pieces. The sirens that some readers refer to are actually sounds of war sirens, planes and bombs. The piece is called "Happened in Al Amiriya", a city in southern Iraq that had an orphanage which was inhialted in an American bombing campaign in 1994..It claimed the lives of more than 200 orphans.. Mr. Shamma was living that horrifying experience through his music. And If the listners are aware of the the stories behind Mr. Shamma's music, I guarantee you, they will be hooked!! Naseer is the absolute lord of the lute, and he is incredibly talented. Infact he is beyond musician, I cant come up with a word to discribe his work. May sound a little extreme but this is how I feel after years of following his perfomances and his artistry.

Naseer Shamma teaches music in Cairo, Egypt and is a well known performer at the Cairo Opera. The piece "Amiriyyah" that another reviewer likens to a siren is just that -- a tone poem or picture of Baghdad under US bombing attacks. Shamma was one of the rescue workers who went into the bunker, said to be an Iraqi command center, that housed only children. If you listen closely, you can hear the sirens, and the bombs falling and children crying. His other tonal works (more mundane)has you hearing a horse running through a meadow or a conversation between lovers. He is a virtuoso, who deserves a wider audience for both his classical renditions and his own compositions.

What wonderful music comes from Baghdad and Iraq in general. It truly was the seat of artistic and musical sophistication. Just listen to these esquisite sounds to see what I mean.

If you are a long time Oud fan you will love this for the sophistication of the music and the maqamat. If you are juts exploring Oud you are lucky to start with these dynamic compositions that cover a full range of movements and elements of the magical instrument of Oud. I have a collection of every thing from Ryad Sunbati and Abdel Wahab to the Basheer brothers to Anouar Brahem and this is one of the essentials of any Oud collection.

I am not as expert as many of the other reviewers are on oud playing. I have listened to a fair number of players and like many of the reviewers below, I was surprised at the playing on this disc. This music does not fit the stereotype of Near Eastern music- in point of fact, in many ways this disc is more reminiscent of a bravura recital by a musician from the Western classical music tradition.
The lute playing to my ears in nontraditional. Naseer Shamma's style incorporates techniques from many different instruments not least classical and flamenco guitar strumming techniques. The harmonic base is traditional to the Iraqi school of oud playing and is wonderfully interesting to these jaded Western ears.
One last note- there is one way that I would like to take exception to many of the reviewers below. I bought this album, as I frequently do, sound unheard and listened to it without benefit of much on the information below as to the stories behind the songs. This music stands alone. I fell in love with it before I read of Naseer Shamma's attempts to convey stories of the Gulf War. The piece about the bombing of the orphanage is quite obviously about something like that and belongs to the international tradition of protest music that uses instrumental sound effects to convey horror- does anyone else remember Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner during the Vietnam war?
Enjoy this album as pure music or enjoy it as protest or both.
What we do have here is a innovative musician steeped in an ancient tradition conveying the vitality of that traditon for the present day. The fact that he is from a nation whose government my government is trying to demonize is perhaps a bonus in that it helps to remind us that behind the Iraqi government is a people from whom we have much to learn.

I had met Nassir a long time ago during the first Iraq War and listened to him play. He cries with his oud; or it cries for him. This collection is an embodiment of what we as a people have suffered under wars, sanctions and more wars...
Nassir traces his steps into the depth of Iraqi culture. He brings up characters in Iraqi history and makes them talk to each other, and if you knew the names, you heard the talk, and you understood.
In the piece on Ameria -called Ameria, a shelter which was hit by a US missile causing the tragic death by 'boiling' to some 400 Iraqi women and children, you can hear the children play. It's peaceful and quiet and then the air-raid sirens kick in, and it is painful...I cry when this piece approaches that part...You can then hear the swirling missile, the rush and panic of humans that seems endless, and then the lamentation...That is slow and agonizing. Peace dawns again, and you hear the Muezzin (the call for prayer), and it seems to drag you into calm, and finally, the joyful march of the martyrs to heaven...You can hear them as they ascend.
The music is rare and beautiful...What more can I say...

And here I thought this CD was my personal discovery! What a surprise to find 20 reviews...but, OK...I'm glad.
I can't understand any comparison to Munir Bashir - Shamma's virtuosity is of a whole different order. Each note seems to have its own attack and dynamic. And his collection of "extended techniques" places him solidly in the late '20th century. Bashir is much more humble and unassuming. Sometimes I feel that Shamma approaches the overelaborated. But even if it's a bit calculated, the calculations are on a genius level. And the orphanage piece touches the heart AND the mind, on so many levels.

Naseer Shamma teaches music in Cairo, Egypt and is a well known performer at the Cairo Opera. The piece "Amiriyyah" that another reviewer likens to a siren is just that -- a tone poem or picture of Baghdad under US bombing attacks. Shamma was one of the rescue workers who went into the bunker, said to be an Iraqi command center, that housed only children. If you listen closely, you can hear the sirens, and the bombs falling and children crying. His other tonal works (more mundane)has you hearing a horse running through a meadow or a conversation between lovers. He is a virtuoso, who deserves a wider audience for both his classical renditions and his own compositions.