Cut From the Reed Bed: Instrumental Classical Music in Cairo & Beirut ca. 1910-23

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1.	Muḥyiddīn Ba‘yun - Taxim ajam achairan, pts 1+2 07:08	buy track
2.	Sami al Shawwa & Mohamed al Qasabji - Raks havanem, pts 1+2 05:56	buy track
3.	Sami al Shawwa - Taxim bayati 03:01	buy track
4.	Sami al Shawwa - Taxim higaz 03:06	buy track
5.	Sami al Shawwa & Abdul Hamid Qadabi - Bachraf el-kasm chahinas, pts 1+2 06:18	buy track
6.	Nachaat Bey - Taxim bayati saba 03:36	buy track
7.	Nachaat Bey - Taxim saba 03:55	buy track
8.	Nachaat Bey - Taxim saba wa taktouka 02:51	buy track
9.	Nachaat Bey - Taxim farahnaki 03:09	buy track
10.	Sami al Shawwa, Mansour Arvad & Abdul Hamid Qadabi - Tahmila saba 02:59	buy track
11.	Sami al Shawwa, Mansour Arvad & Abdul Hamid Qadabi - Saba kamanga bilfatletein 03:25	buy track
12.	Amin al-Buzari - Taxim sikah 03:07	buy track
13.	Amin al-Buzari - Taxim higaz 02:54	buy track
14.	"le célèbre luthier" likely Sami al Shawwa - Taxim rasd 02:58	buy track
15.	"le célèbre luthier" likely Sami al Shawwa - Taxim bayati 03:05	buy track

about

Violinist SAMI AL-SHAWWA was born in Cairo in 1889 into a family of Orthodox Christian musicians from Aleppo, Syria that extended back three generations before him. His father, the innovative violinist Antoine al-Shawwa, had traveled from Aleppo to Turkey and then Egypt, where he accompanied singers including Abu el-Hamouli. Shortly after Sami’s birth, the family returned to Aleppo where he took up the violin against his father’s wishes. However, with the support of his mother and grandfather, he began performing as a child and quickly demonstrated incredible virtuosity. When he was fourteen, he was sent to Cairo by his father whose connections in the music world put him in front of appreciative audiences. While still a teenager, he began accompanying the best singers in Cairo including Yusuf al-Manyalawi, Abdel Hayy Hilmi, Sayyid al-Safti, Zaki Mourad, Sayyid Darwish (whom he was instrumental in promoting), and many others. By 1906, he co-founded a music school with oudist Mansour Awad, and by 1907 he began recording as a soloist for the Gramophone Company. He was a central figure in the Arab music world for half a century, touring and making a strong impact in Iraq, the United States, Brazil, and across Europe. He published a method book on the oud in 1921. He died Dec. 23, 1965.

Syrian player of the oud and buzuq (and inventor of the small nash'at kar) NACHAAT BEY recorded prolifically during the 1910s and ‘20s in both Constantinople, where he was known as Arap ("Arab”) Neset Bey, and in Cairo where he recorded 14 taxims (structured improvisations) for the Gramophone Company in December 1913 of which four are presented here. He died in 1930

Born blind around 1863, AMIN AL-BUZARI was sent to be educated at a Mawlawiyya (Mevlevi Sufi) monetary in mountainous southern Cairo. There, he studied nay (flute), an instrument that is central to Mevlevi dikr ceremonies, including the sema (whirling practice), which is performed in remembrance of the death of the 13th century poet poet Jalaluddin Muhammed Rumi. Buzari traveled to monasteries in Syria and Turkey and, possibly, Iran. He was renowned as a concert performer in Cairo to the extent that he was among very few instrumentalists who could command fees equivalent to those of singers, and he made recordings for several labels in a variety of forms including discs with the Sāmī al-Shawwā, oudist Manṣūr 'Awaḍ, and quanunists Abdul Hamid Qadabi and Maqṣūd Kalkadjian. He seems only to have recorded as a soloist and not as an accompanist. The two performances presented here are from among 24 that he recorded for the Gramophone Company between January 1909 and June 1910.

credits

released December 25, 2023

Transfers, restorations, and notes by Ian Nagoski
Biographical details drawn largely from research available at the site of the Foundation for Arab Music Archiving and Research.
www.amar-foundation.org
Recording details drawn from the Gramophone Company Discography
www.gramophonecompanydiscography.com
and from Hugo Strötbaum's recordingpioneers.com

Recording dates and locations:
Track 1: ca. 1923;Cairo or Beirut
Track 2-4: ca. 1919-23, Cairo
Tracks 5-7: ca. 1911-12, Cairo
Tracks 8-9: Dec. 1913, Cairo
Tracks 10-13: June 1910, Cairo
Tracks 14-15 March 3, 1912, Beirut

Recording companies:
Tracks 1-7 Baidaphon
Tracks 8-15 Gramophone

Known recording engineers:
Tracks 8-9: Hugh Murtagh (b. London, England 1886: d. Sliema, Malta Jan. 13, 1967)
Tracks 10-15: Arthur Spottiswoode Clarke (b. Pewsey, Wiltshire, England 1885; d. Bedfont, Middlesex, England 1952)

Cover photo of Sami el-Chawa ca. 1930s via the Foundation for Arab Music Archiving and Research:
www.amar-foundation.org/sami-al-shawwa/

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