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It would be difficult to overstate the influence of the hundreds of compositions left behind by SAYED DARWISH (b. March 17, 1892; d. 1923) on the popular imagination of Egyptians. He trained as a religious singer but was a populist and, foremost, a patriot who was at the height of his powers and popularity during the 1919 revolution and devoted much of his creativity to nationalist work. Born to a poor family in Alexandria, he received a religious education into two years of university studies before leaving to dedicate himself to music. He married several times through his 20s. Initially, he worked as a bricklayer before working in musical theater and touring in Syria. When he returned to Cairo, he was recognized by, among others, the violinist Sami al-Chaawa who helped him make his first recordings for the Armenian-owned independent Mechian label. He initially sang in cafes to mixed reception. He then co-composed a series of operettas during the period 1918-23 with several collaborators and under significant Western influence. he distilled a combination of earlier Egyptian performance styles, Italian opera, and folk music in his compositions and performances on discs over the late 10s and early 20s into a body of work that has become legendary. His song “Bilaadi! Bilaadi!” (“My Country! My Country!”) became Egypt’s national anthem, and many of his songs remain well-known in Egypt. His work was profoundly influential on the songwriters who followed him, notably Abdel el Wahab. The use of stimulants - cocaine in particular - was ubiquitous and normal among his contemporaries, and Darwish has generally been thought to have died of cocaine at the age of 31. Darwish’s grandson has pointed toward Darwish’s nationalistic songs against the use of drugs and alcohol and proposed a conspiracy theory that Darwish was poisoned by British authorities. The use of intoxicants is seen by many as undignified or a personal failing; I do not see it that way.
ABDEL LATIF EL-BANNA (b. 1884) studied religious recitation in Desouk. He relocated to Cairo in 1908 where he began performing, transitioning from religious chanting to secular singing in 1912. In 1918 he performed a composition of Sayed Darwish in Alexandria to such success that he began specializing in taqtuqa - a light, catchy, repetitive form which until that time had been performed only by women. His appearance and vocal style both took on androgynous characteristics and his repertoire became salacious. He dropped out of music in 1939, apparently repentant for a life of dissipation, and returned to his village to farm and by the 1960s was seen wearing religious robes and performing the tawshih and dikhr repertoire associated with Sufism.
I am surprised not to have been able to locate biographical information in English about the singer AHMAD IDRISS (also: Edress, Adriess, etc.) who recorded at least a dozen sides for the Gramophone Company and an unknown number for Baidaphon in the late ‘10s and early ‘20s.
SALEH ABD EL-HAYY (b. 1896; d. 1962) followed in the footsteps of his uncle Abd Al-Hayy Hilmi, both as a popular, prolific, highly creative, and magnificent singer and as a self-indulgent, bohemian eccentric. Adhering to the aesthetics of the performers of the early 20th century even after Egyptian music had largely moved on to simpler compositions accompanied by larger orchestras, his career lasted for nearly 50 years.
SAYYID AL-SAFTI (b. 1875; d. 1937) was a religious singer before becoming a secular performer. His mastery of intricate metrical material and dedication to his art made him among the most popular singers of the early 20th century. He began recording in 1903, and over the next two decades is thought to have recorded 300 discs. His influence was felt in Syria / Lebanon, where he toured. He was, however, a severe alcoholic, leading to a decline in his productivity and popularity in the last decade of his life.
ZAKI MOURAD (b. 1880; d. 1946) worked in his Jewish family’s textile business in Alexandria before studying at the Arab Music Conservatory in 1907 and becoming a disciple of Abd Al-Hayy Hilmi. He started recording for the Gramophone company in January 1909, including compositions by And al-Hamouli, ultimately recording 163 sides for them over the next decade as well as many recordings for Baidaphon. He had several significant theatrical roles in the 1910s & ‘20s including a starring role for which he was chosen by Sayyed Darwish. In the late ’20s and early ‘30s, as Egyptian music transitioned from the old, elaborate style to a newer more populist style, Mourad toured North Africa and the United States (where he released some recordings on A.J. Macksoud’s label in New York, including his performance of Darwish’s evergreen “Zourouni.”). Returning to Cairo, he discovered that the scene had changed radically and that he was old hat and forgotten. He spent the last decade of his life embittered. Two of Mourad’s brothers had brief singing careers in North America, and among his six children, his son Mounir (b. Jan. 1922; d. Oct. 1981) became a singer and composer and all three of his daughters became singers, most famously Leila (b. Feb. 1918. d. Nov. 1995) was one of the most famous singers of the Arab world in the 1930s-50s.
credits
released December 26, 2023
Tracks 1-2: ca. 1915-17
Tracks 3-8, 11, 12, 16 : ca. early '20s
Track 9, 10, 13. 14: Oct. 1919
Track 15: July 1924
Cover image of Sayed Darwish via wikipedia commons.
Biographical data drawn largely from research available at the site of the Foundation for Arab Music Archiving and Research.
www.amar-foundation.org
Discographical data drawn from the Gramophone Company Discography
www.gramophonecompanydiscography.com
and from Hugo Strötbaum's recordingpioneers.com
