Customer Reviews

Baladi Plus: Egyptian Dance Music

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

 

 

Opening with a soul stirring Rebaba taxim, Baladi Plus just gets better and better.

1) "Night Foal", the opening piece, is a mesmerizing taxim on Rebaba and Mizmar

2) Arabian Knights is a "rock on" Saaidi composition inspired by the famous dancing Arabian Stallions. This is the music I associate with the Ghawazii dancers and I can't resist dancing to it every time I hear it. I especially enjoy dancing with my cane on this one.

3) Mashalla is a percussive piece focusing on the Masmoudi and Maqsum rhythms. It's very hard to sit still when Hossam Ramzy plays! A good drum solo piece.

4) Alla Hai is a lovely heavy, pulsing Zaar.

5) Baladi we Hetta is a very Mohammed Ali Street selection with it's hot accordion taxims and the driving rhythm. I can easily imagine Lucy dancing to this.

6)Wahda We Bas is a combination of the rhythms Wahda Kebira and Samaai which is referred to in the liner notes as "food for the soul" and I find that very appropriate. The piece has the flow of a Chifti and features beautiful oud taxims and crisps clear drumming.

7) Malfuf Ala Westi is a great dance piece featuring the accordion again accompanying the Malfuf rhythm which the liner notes say is the standard rhythm for stage entrances or exits.

8) Roah Albi is a great driving drum solo with a lot of exciting changes and is very reminiscent of the finale piece of Ramzey's Rhythms of the Nile recording. This is good drumming!

If you are a Middle Eastern dancer or drummer and want to something more traditional without a lot of synthesizers and organs this is great. The drumming is wonderful.

This CD ends up being one of the most used CDs in my collection as I use it to teach beginning students to dance. It has long pieces of music, with steady consistent rhythms throughout the music. This quality makes it excellent for teaching beginning students to dance, as they are not ready for swoops, dips, and fast switches in tempo that most Middle Eastern music contains which more experienced dancers grow to love. For someone searching for an ethnic sound, with authentic instrumentation, this is also an excellent CD. Also the long tracks might be monotonous for solo performances, but it could serve a troupe quite well. It would be particularly of benefit for those who are members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, as am I, who are searching for an authentic sound. The songs are certainly not boring, but are quite fun to dance to. A bonus is the first song, a short 2 ½" minute, predominately flute piece that different from all the other pieces on the CD, which is nice to finish stretching out and warming up to. While the songs are long by Western standards, the rhythm generally monotonous, this can often be of great benefit for certain situations, and all the songs are certainly enjoyable. I certainly highly recommend it (as I do all of Hosam Ramsey's music that I've heard), particularly for beginning dancers.

This album sizzles with sexy beats from the master. This is a must for both performers and listeners if you adore the rhythmic drumming from north african traditions. Although slightly repetative, this CD is a much welcomed relief from the more subtle 'floaty' and unpunctuated belly dancing musical offerings.

While this album is obviously a great pick for belly dancers and drummers alike I can confidently recommend this album to anyone. This review is based on how much I like this album musically. The drumming is simply a joy to listen to. The performances are so clean yet funky beyond belief. I could see this work being considered genre defining the way these essential rhythms are captured. Based on the overall feel and sound this album lays down what I would consider my favorite style of Egyptian music.

I love these albums of Hossam Ramzy that go beyond belly dance to mystery and romance. The more he goes in this direction the more I like him. A must-have in any mix.

Since I suspect that many potential buyers are in the Society for Creative Anachronism, as the previous gentle reviewer, I offer a few warnings. While this album certainly is delightful, be wary of using it for the SCA. The accordian and synthesizers are, of course, not medieval, nor is the highly virtuosic percussion (many scholars suggest that this practice was born in the showy cabarets of the 19th and 20th c. Listen to folk drummers for a good idea of medieval practices). Furthermore, dumbeks were not as widespread in the Middle Ages as frame drums and naqqarat (nakers); in fact, I've only found one piece of iconography (13th c.) showing one, and I've yet to read any textual evidence. And dumbeks would rarely be used in large ensembles (like the SCA drumming circles), but would more likely be frame drums...this holds true today. Therefore, "authentic" music may very well be authentic culturally, but be lacking in historical or even ethnographic "authenticity." What I mean is that Ramzy is drawing from his culture for inspiration and is staying within the cultural aesthetic (hence the cultural authenticity), but specifics of instrumentation and technique fall more under his personal sway.

However, to non-SCA members, this album is highly enjoyable as a rhythmic "pick-me-up." For more authentic instrumentation (albeit technique can sometimes be a mite tailored for international audiences, as in the performance of the Egyptian folk epic) the Musicians of the Nile have some good CDs out. "Charcoal Gypsies" is most notable.

Sorry, I said that highly virtuosic playing is not period; actually, in some places (Iran, India) percussion has been very virtuosic for centuries. It is not clear, however, as to just when these aesthetics spilled over into Egypt and "Middle East Proper."