North Shore News,
CD Review
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Rating: 9 (out of 10)
The German World Music label Piranha releases an incredibly funky and soulful compilation of Nubian urban music styles this week.
Most of the musicians featured on the disc are expatriates from a lost world that disappeared when the Aswan Dam flooded vast areas of their Upper Nile homeland in the '60s.
Up until that time the black Nubian culture had flourished for millennia as an independent buffer between Egypt and the rest of Northeast Africa.
The Nubians didn't lose their identity after moving into Cairo's urban environment -- they just added more layers into the musical mix including Cuban beats and James Brown soul workouts.
The Godfather of Nubian grooves, Ali Hassan Kuban, is credited with bringing a new dimension into the traditional sounds by introducing saxophones and other novel instrumentation into his band.
Weddings play a big part in Nubian musical culture, or at least that's where the bands find their audiences, and most of the musicians on Egypt Noir (including Sayed Khalifa, Hassan Abdel Aziz and Abou Saleh) have had some connection with weddings as performers.
The opening track, Kuban's modern take on a traditional tune "Gammal (Camel Driver)" featuring diva Salwa Abou Greisha on vocals, was first heard on the Kuban compilation Real Nubian: Cairo Wedding Classics. One of the younger performers on the disc, Mahmoud Fadl, got his start as a limbo dancer at Egyptian wedding ceremonies.
Kuban's sha'bi (street) funk is the most well-known outside Cairo but everything here is worth checking out.
-- John Goodman
05/14/10
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