Customer Reviews

Rough Guide to the Music of Egypt

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Some excellent music - the first six tracks are great. I would almost give this five stars - probably 4 1/2 overall - but it starts repeating artists after the first six tracks. We have Amr Diab, Abgham, and the rather obscure Nagat el Saghira all TWICE. There should never be the same artists twice on a rough guide. It's not as if there's a lack of music in Egypt. Besides, there are ommissions; virtually no folk, Arabic classical or Sufi music, and as others have pointed out, no Umm Kalthoum, though I've never heard anything by her. However, Nubian music is represented excellently by good tracks from Ali Hassan Kuban, Mahmoud Fadl and the Cairo Opera orchestra, and Hamza el Din. There's also quite a lot of old music from former stars such as Abdel Hlim Hafez, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, and Warda (and Nagat el Saghira, twice, on slightly old recordings.) And there's alot of pop music, most of which is still pretty traditional.

The liner notes are not very helpful or extensive, and the dicography might as well not be there - little of the music is from accesible albums. I don't know WHERE it's from - a lot of tracks are, apparently, from "album unknown."

But it's good. If you like Arabic music, or music in general, it's very much recomended.

Egypt is well known for its modern pop music. Artists from all over the Arab world come to Egypt - Natacha Atlas, Samira Said, Hamid al Shaeri, Fatma Zidan, Warda and others come from places like Britain, Morocco, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Algeria originally, but Cairo is the center of the Arabic music industry, and in some ways they are all Egyptian artists. Egyptian pop does borrow from western pop, but it uses this to create unique music of its own, often using Arabic strings and instruments. This Rough Guide represents this style well, with the incredibly popular Amr Diab represented with two tracks of his own, as well as the pop star Angham. Nagat el Saghira, with earlier recordings, is also represented with two tracks. This is unnecessary: instead they could have shown more artists. There should never be the same person twice on a compilation like this, but that's okay.

This CD also shows the Nubian style, with the oud and vocals of Hamza el Din, the percussion of Mahmoud Fadl, the fiery, relentless band rhythms of Ali Hasan Kuban, and the experimental fusion of Mohamed Mounir. There are a number of old recordings on this CD as well, showing the popular music of earlier times.

All in all this is well worth it if you're interested in Arabic music. Other worthwhile purchases are the Rough Guides to Morocco and Sudan.

After my visit to Egypt, I wanted a musical reminder of the amazing time time there. The Rough Guide to Egyptian Music turned out to be just the thing. Royal Cloyd

How can you make a CD of Egyptian music and leave off the most listened to singer in Egypt: Umm Kulthum?