Customer Reviews

Drum Circle

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

 

 

Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Iraqi drummers Fathi Amin, Ahmad Al Masri, Hani Samir, Amir Nabil, Magdi Mshmosh, Mhamma Johari, Haysam, Safad Sroor, Hsen Sahhar, Jamale Samia, Mahmoud Hashash, Nigm Hanafli, and Kazim Al Iraqi play these ten percussion pieces featuring the Tabla. They are beautifully and skillfully played, more upbeat than the American Tribal offering by Solace, "Rhythm of the Dance", and not quite so complex as Hossam Ramszy's "Sabla Tolo" pieces.
Featured are:
1. Tabla Competition (3:10) - Freestyle Finger Rolls/Malfoof
2. I Salute the Rakasa (3:04) - Fallahi/Maqsum/Maqsum Finger Rolls
3. Everyone Gather Around (3:06) - Masmudi/Freestyle Maqsum/Africi
4. Boy's Stick Dance (4:39) - Malfoof/Saidi/Maghrebi/Ingrara Fallihi
5. Let Me Shake You (5:30) - Tafsil/Maqsum/Taksim/Saidi
6. Bedouin's Steps (3:22) - Maqsum Finger Rolls
7. Awaken the Horsemen (3:54) - Improvisation/Maqsum/Rhythm/Moorakkab/Freestyle Doom-Tak
8. Shepherd's Dabke (4:01) - Maqsum Variation
9. Dance of the Horse (3:10) - 3/4 Variation
10. The Hidden Art (3:01) - Baladi, Fallahi, Fallahi Finger Rolls

This is an enjoyable collection of songs performed by some of the best doumbek players out the Middle East and Turkey. It's pure drumming with no melodic instrumentation so it could have a particular appeal to hand drummers. Each song has a listing of its main rhythms (e.g., Masmoudi, Karsilama, Malfouf, etc.) which allows a beginning drummer to hear and play along with some amazing solo work of blazing finger rolls, pops, and slaps. These guys are amazing drummers; always "in the pocket.".

This CD is a great way to hear particular Middle Eastern drum rhythms. I'm not a good enough drummer yet to mimic these rhythms but it's an excellent CD to play during the drum circle I lead. There is a wide and interesting variety of rhythms that gets us moving and are fun to play our own rhythms against.

This is a great album. Your body won't be able to resist moving to it. My only complaint has nothing to do with the music. I bought the mp3 album, and the tag data doesn't include who the artists are for the songs. If anyone happens to know, I would appreciate it if you would post the info here.