More on Saâda Bonaire's "Bedouin funk archive" & their "oriental disco-funk tunes"

"Bedouin funk archive" and "Oriental disco-funk tunes" -- this is how Dazed Digital describes the recent eponymous release of this '80s project's canned recordings. They also describe it thus: "Combining the occasionally stony, stark minimalism of European electronics with the groove-laden funk of Turkish and Kurdish folk."

Dazed Digital has interviewed DJ Ralph “von” Richtoven and singers Stephanie Lange (but not singer Claudia Hossfeld) on the occasion of the release. What I found of interest was how they describe the recordings "Eastern" feel. Excerpts follow:

von Richtoven: The band? Well there was no real band. It was a lot of friends from the music scene. I also gathered some traditional Kurdish folk musicians from the local Turkish communist party to play some more Eastern instruments on the tracks. I didn't really want a band – Saâda Bonaire was a pop-art project...

We saw the strong influence that Afro-Cuban sounds had on American music. We could hear the influence that Caribbean and Indian immigrants had on British music in the 80s. In France, they had the Rai music from the Maghreb and a lot of musicians from West Africa. In Germany, we only had Turkish immigrants... millions of them. In the 1970s I studied social work. By the 1980s, I was working for the German government's immigration department. I was responsible for many immigrant social clubs in Bremen. I was also collecting music tapes from Turkey and Egypt since 1975. In theory it was obvious what we had to do: fusion. In reality it was very difficult and almost impossible.

So there you have it: Cool German artists want to emulate the hip reggae and bhangra sounds coming out of England and the "rai" and West African influence on French music. [As an aside, I'm sure this an anachronism, as I seriously doubt that pop rai was much evidence in Germany as early as 1982.] But they "only" had Turks around...who happened to be Kurds who belonged to the Turkish Communist Party?

Don't you wish music journalists asked more questions?

But maybe not, if they don't know the difference between Bedouin and Turks...

Muhammad Assaf, Raise The Kufiya

 Clearly I'm behind on my kufiyaspotting blogs. Just so no one who reads this and is trying to keep track thinks I've missed anything, it's important to note that Muhammad Assaf, the Arab Idol winner, performed the song "Raise The Kufiya" (‘Alay al-kufiya) as his final song.

It starts with a mawwal, for which Australians for Palestine has provided this translation.

And here's the Arabic for the song, plus translation (which I've adapted from a couple sources, here and here).

raise the kufiya raise it high, wave it in the air.
 علّي الكوفيّه علّي، ولولح فيها

sing the Ataba and Mijana enjoy it
وغنّي عتابا وميجانا، وسامر فيها

Shake your shoulder gently, Jafra, Ataba and Dahiyya [traditional dances]
هز الكتف بحنيّة، جفرا، عتابا، ودحيّة.

let the gun contribute and make it more fun
 خلّي البارود يهلل ويحلّيها

raise the flag in Ram-Allah and in the mountain of fire [Nablus, a nickname dating from the 1936-39 revolt]]
علّي الراية بِـ رام الله وبِـ جبال النار

your proud aqal [head band for the kufiya] is a symbol of determination and persistence
وعقال العزة عقالك، عزم وإصرار

the first shot is a tale of a journey
والطلقة الأولى فيها حكاية مشوار

when the time comes, we'll turn things upside down
وعند الحق نخلّي العالي واطيها

we planted orchards of figs and olives, we brought wheat seeds and lemons
احنا زرعنا البيارة تين وزيتون، وبذار القمح علينا وبيدر ليمون

When you call my country we'll be ready
رهن الإشارة يا وطن إحنا حنكون

Lighting the path of victory on the day of battle  
يوم العرك دروب النصر نضويها

The esteemed Palestinian singer Reem Kilani has penned a very interesting piece on Assaf (whose talent she greatly admires), in which she worries about how he might be put to use by the Palestinian Authority.

Assaf’s repertoire may be very versatile in terms of Arabic music, but he must ensure that his repertoire on stage encompasses all Palestinians, and that off-stage, he doesn’t allow himself to become the musical mouthpiece of the PA. Mohammed Assaf might have won the tarab of the Arabs, but he must keep the spirit of duende. For himself and for Palestine.

10 taboo Arabic songs: Habiba Msika

The very fine on-line publication Ma'azef (in Arabic, and because I read Arabic very very slowly I haven't explored nearly enough) recently published a piece called 10 taboo songs: ١٠ أغاني محرّمة.

I was most interested in item 4, a song by the Tunisian Jewish singer Habiba Msika called "'Ala Sarir al-nawm dala'ni."

Habiba Msika (1903-1930) was quite the sensation in Tunis in the twenties, wearing Paris fashion when the norm was for respectable women to be covered up, taking up with lovers in a fairly public fashion. In 1925 she appeared onstage in a production of Romeo and Juliet, playing Romeo opposite the Libyan Jewish actress Rachida Lotfi's Juliet. Their onstage kiss caused an uproar, and her côterie of fans, known as the "soldats de la nuit," who included many young Tunisian dandies, had to rescue her from outraged members of the audience.

In 1930 a jealous ex-lover entered her flat, poured gasoline on her, and set her on fire. She died the next day. (And you can read more about her fascinating career here.) Tunisian director Salma Baccar made a film about her, La Danse du feu (1995), which I would love to see. (This might be a clip from the film.) And the blog Jewish Morocco reflects on how Habiba Msika is "remembered" in Tunisia today, here.

(And someone please help me with a vernacular translation of that song!)

Added, a few hours later. See the comments from Hammer. The song could be translated as "On My Bed He Spoiled Me." I.e., he shtupped me. Hence the "taboo" nature of the song.

Dub Snakker Does the Bendaly Family's "Do You Love Me?"

In 2007 I asked here whether the video of Lebanon's Bendaly Family's "Do You Love Me?" (1978) was the best video clip of Arabic music ever.

Now Dub Snakker has done a re-fix of the song, which he calls "Do You Wubb Me," and which was recently broadcast on Quarter Tone Frequency Vol. 2. You can listen to it at 46:40. Thanks to Jackson Allers for playing it. The entire show, featuring independent music from the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon is well worth a listen, but I was particularly moved by this track.

You can download Dub Snakker's release Khat Thaleth, a 23 track compilation of politically conscious Arab hip-hop, here.

The Bendaly Family's official website is here. And check out Rene Bendaly's very wild 1982 release "Tanki Tanki" here.

And one more, also very wacky, Bendaly Family's "popcorn" version of the great Saudi singer Muhammad 'Abdu's "Ab'ad Kuntum wa-al la Aqrabiyin." Nuts. [addendum Nov. 16: thanks to Hammer for this translation of the title - 'Whether You Were Near or Far' -- see comments.]

Saâda Bonaire

This is a publicity photo for the early '80s synth dance band Saâda Bonaire. Problematic, isn't it? Especially given the name, the first half meaning happiness in Arabic (سعادة).

The 'ayn is often rendered as "â" in French.

I guess this photo (evoking what? catwoman in burka?) goes with not only the name of the group but also their track "The Facts," which is a wild synth-pop-goes-world dance number, entirely of its time, synth with "Eastern" instruments mixed in. Fact recently announced the "rediscovery" of the group and the release, over thirty years after their recording, of a single released in 1982 (two sides, it was the days of vinyl) and 11 previously unreleased tracks. All produced by the amazing Dennis Bovell, who also worked with The Slits and The Raincoats and Pop Group among others.

Of the tracks that I have managed to hear so far, it's "The Facts" that has that Eastern feel. Fact says it "is a decisively weird collision of Pet Shop Boys-influenced FM synth, pummeling disco rhythms, deadpan female vocals and, yep, Middle Eastern flutes and what sounds like Oud. It shouldn’t work at all, but we’re glad it does." I don't think it's flutes and I think it is a bouzouki (or in Arabic, buzuq), but Fact does get the idea. It does, somehow, work. (But I admit, I love that 80s synth sound.)

And it seems, according to this source, that the musicians on the recordings were "culled from the local immigration center." Hmmm, I wonder how much they were paid...

culled from the local immigration center

joined by dozens of local musicians culled from the local immigration center. - See more at: http://capturedtracks.com/news/coming-soon-saada-bonaire-2xlp-cd/#sthash.vrHPVB4B.dpuf

Here's the video for the song, featuring the two German vocalists, Stefanie Lange and Claudia Hossfield, in various states of undress. Very eighties. You've been warned.

Stefanie Lange and Claudia Hossfeld

And here is the cover of the release, just out on November 12. Yep, Arabic on the cover.

Here's a photo of Saâda Bonaire without the weird "burqa":

And a couple more Saâda Bonaire tracks on youtube. "Invitation" (with bagpipes that also "work" and what sounds like a sampled Middle Eastern female vocal). "You Could Be More As You Are." And "Funky Way," which is very dub, but with "Eastern-sounding" horns, and the best track of theirs I've heard so far.

However, I just bought the album (it came out two days ago, 12 November), so maybe I'll find more that I like.

Note: for some strange reason "Funky Way" is not on the just-released album. So grab it from youtube. You've got the link.

ADDED November 16: You can now stream the entire album here.

#4

The Center for a Public Anthropology (based at the University of Hawaii and run by Dr. Robert Borofsky) recently released a study of social science faculty media impact at public universities. The aim, as Borofsky stated, was to permit the public to assess “the degree to which those who draw on public funding participate in public conversations in return.”

The project involved using the Google News archive from 2006 to 2011 to find how many times  faculty members were cited in any of 6,000 news sources, and then dividing the average number of citations for a school by the percentage of National Science Foundation funding the institution received. Schools then were ranked and, within schools, the political science, anthropology, psychology, economics and sociology departments were also ranked using the same system.

As reported in the University of Arkansas Newswire on October 11, 2013, the University of Arkansas social scientists ranked 5th in the country, out of 94 research universities, behind Rice University, Southern Methodist University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas, San Antonio.

As is typical in such cases, the top three faculty at the University of Arkansas were named in the Newswire: Janine Parry and Andrew Dowdle from political science and my colleague Peter Ungar from anthropology. Among departments at the University of Arkansas, political science ranked #1. Anthropology ranked #2.

Curious, I decided to dig a little deeper, and discovered this:

Yep, I was number 4. I didn't make the headlines. Of course, I did have a lot fewer cites than the top 3, but 50% more than the numbers 5 and 6.

It's not that I really care about such things (well, that's not entirely true, if this ranking helped me get a larger merit raise that would be great). The point for calling attention to it is (1) because who else will, since I missed the top three cut-off (the tyranny of trinitological thinking!) and (2) my citations are in all likelihood due to this blog; the fact that I display here my obsession with kufiyas; and that during 2007-2008 there was a "kufiya craze" and a fair amount of media attention to the phenomenon. I was interviewed by various media reporters about the kufiya, most notably in the New York Times.

There is no lesson here, or at least, there is no "model" for anyone who wants a similar amount of media attention so they can impress their college dean. The media attention was really quite random. Moreover, the NSF funding that also factors into the equation has nothing to do with me. Most of it, when it comes to my university, is probably from my anthropology colleagues, especially those in Biological Science. There is no direct line between NSF funding and media impact with an impact on the public.

"I'm Stoned" by MC Sadat and Figo (Mahragan)

I'm stoned, I'm drunk...Stoned, drunk...Dear Mr. weed dealer/Give me two bags/Cuz I invited my friends/For a beer and two joints.

heaven knows I'm miserable now

I found this in tumblr but can't find the site now. 

Probably it was ordered to take all its riffs on The Smiths down. 

Grab this fast if you like it.

Leila Mourad's brother Mounir: another Egyptian Jewish artist

I recently learned that the great Egyptian singer and actress Leila Mourad's brother Mounir Mourad was also a prominent showbiz figure in Egypt, a singer, actor, and composer.

Son of the great Egyptian Jewish singer and composer Ibrahim Zaki Mordechai (known as Zaki Mourad), Mounir was known for, among other things, his efforts to incorporate jazz music into Egyptian popular music.

He wrote the music for one of Shadia's big hits, "Wahed, Etneen" (One, Two), which you should check out. The Hawaiian guitar at the end of the song is just perfect.

Like his sister Leila, Mounir converted to Islam after he married. His wife was the actress Soheir El Bably.

But unlike Leila, it seems that Mounir was not accused of relations with Israel, and so he remained active as an artist at least into the 1960's. His film appearances are quite delightful, and I've found several on youtube. They show him doing fare that is somewhat more "modern" (not sure how else to put it) than that done by his sister, and would seem to put him on the avant-garde side in the Egyptian popular music scene.

Check out this jazzy number, "Ayna Tadhhab Hadha al-Masa'" (Where are you going this evening?) from the 1955 film Appointment with Satan (موعد مع ابليس), which features Mounir on vocals (and he co-wrote the music with Mahmoud El-Sherif).

This is another delightful one, "Isti‘rad al-Batta" (Duck Review -- not really sure how to translate this), from the film Bint al-Hitta (Local Girl, 1964), with Mounir on vocals (and he composed the music). It's also notable for the dancing of the divine, inimitable Samia Gamal.

This long number is really a scream. It's called "Skatch al-Kura (Ya Hadarat al-Mustama‘in)" or Football Sketch (O Distinguished Listeners), sung by Mounir, and again, his composition, and one showing his equal facility with modern show tunes and traditional Egyptian mawwal. It's from the film Naharak Sa‘id (1955), and it's a marvelous musical production, beautifully filmed, by director Fatin Abdel Wahab, who later married Mounir's sister Leila (I'm not sure which year, but definitely after this film was made.

According to the wikipedia article about Mounir Mourad, he wrote the music hits not just for Shadia, but several for Abdel Halim Hafez (including the great "Dahk wa La‘b") as well as hits for the likes of Warda, Muhammad Qandil, Hani Shaker and others.

Finally, download a zany instrumental with insane Farfisa, called "The Factory Theme," here.

Satanism, West and East

Dangerous Minds has recently been reporting on US hysteria over Satanism (I guess it's a Halloween season theme)? One of them is on a 1970 film, in the pseudo-documentary/ethnographic Mondo Cane vein, called Witchcraft '70. The other is about an evangelical preacher, Dr. Jerry Johnston, and a video he is in that dates from the late 1980s.

In both cases it is all moral panic: Satanism and animal sacrifice, human sacrifice, ritualistic sex, drug use and abuse, desecration of Christian symbols, and so on. In Witchcraft '70, it's hippies who are the focus, and we see nude hippy Satanists doing hallucinogenic drugs and a ritual that involves the violation of nubile young women. In the Johnston vid it is heavy metal music that is associated with the evils of Satanism. In both instances, Satanism is presented as a danger that threatens young people, and urges more sober adults to be on the look-out for the warning signs.

I presented a paper at the American Anthropological Association meetings in 2000 on the 1997 crackdown on Satanic heavy-metal fans in Egypt. I've never published the paper, but you can read an account of it here.

Below is a photo of one of several popular exposés of Satanism that I found in Cairo in summer 2000. This one is entitled: Satan Worship: Rituals of Sex and Blood.

As I am considering reworking the paper for eventual publication, I find it interesting to what degree the 1997 panic over heavy metal Satanism in Egypt (and another, much less hysterical one in 2012), Morocco in 2003, Lebanon in 1996-98 and 2002, and 2012, among others, have their ideological origins in the various panics over Satanism (probably dating from the late sixties) in the US. The discourse, East and West, is remarkably similar, as are the themes and motifs.

The big difference, of course, is that in the case of the US, the danger is internal, whereas in the Arab World, the danger is presented as external: Satanism is an alien, Western, sometimes Zionist, threat.

(Some of these issues are also discussed, of course, in Mark Levine's Heavy Metal Islam.)

More, inshallah, later.

P.S. added 11/11/13: I just came across this source on Egypt's heavy metal, which I've not yet read (but I just ordered the book on Interlibrary Loan): Benjamin J. Harbert, "Noise and its Formless Shadows: Egypt's Extreme Metal as Avant-Garde Nafas Dawsha," in Thomas Burkhalter et al, eds.,  The Arab Avant-Garde: Music, Politics, Modernity, Wesleyan University Press. (The book comes out this Wednesday!)

Line Monty, friend of Farid al-Atrash

I was poking around on ebay earlier today and found this photo, from the back cover of a Line Monty album that was for sale (for more than I wanted to pay, alas).

Line Monty (d. 2003) was one of those many terrific Algerian-Jewish singers of the twentieth century. According to wikipedia (French), she was a friend of the great singer and oud player Farid al-Atrash (a Syrian, but whose career was almost entirely in Egypt). The wikipedia article states: 'En Égypte, son ami Farid El Atrache lui fait répéter une de ses compositions et les Égyptiens, ignorant qu'elle possède aussi cette culture écoutent "la Française qui chante si bien l'arabe."'

This is the album in question. (The title track is the only French song on the album; the rest are Arabic.)

I highly recommend getting anything by Monty. I've been unable to track down much about her biography at the moment, but in future, inshallah. I do know that she was frequently backed by Maurice El Medioni on piano.

Meanwhile, here is one of her great songs:



As for Farid, he had a secret love affair with Moroccan Jewish singer Maya Casabianca (who grew up in Israel as Margalit Azran), who was a big star in France in the sixties. But that's another story. 

(F.N.: Umm Kalthoum met Salim Halali once.)

hip capitalism: kale from jail

A report on Soprafinna's and Cicchetti, restaurants in Chicago.

Isn't it so cool and hip and botique-y when restaurants promote local and natural food production? and use recyclable and biodegradable products? and produce tapas with a 'Venetian twist'? and use eco-friendly design?

And then there is, as Doug Henwood has quipped, kale from jail: 'Both new eateries will tap local sources for produce, including a new partnership with the Cook County Department of Corrections that's already underway with Mr. Rosenthal's other restaurants for naturally grown tomatoes, kale, squash, beets and more.'

(Thanks to Adolph for this one.)

Bahram Hajou's kufiya art

I know very little about Syrian-Kurdish neo-expressionist painter Bahram Hajou, but I like this painting, called "Menschen," featuring kufiyas.

 

Here's Bahram's website. And if you read German (he is based in Münster), check this out.

Omar Souleyman's new release "Wenu Wenu" (and the question of politics)

 Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman has a new album out, Wenu Wenu, his first album produced specifically with a Western audience in mind. And he has been getting lots and lots of publicity.

In The Guardian. Where he says: "My music has no influences," and "I'm not into politics, I don't know any solution."

In Rolling Stone. Where Souleyman says "he's never felt pressure to join any political parties, or lend support to the government." And we learn that Syria dabke expert Shayna Silverstein  

once went to a Souleyman show where a couple of concertgoers from Beirut, the cosmopolitan capital of Lebanon, crinkled their nose at the singer.

"They said, 'Oh, I don't understand why he is representing our culture. They should really invite Marcel Khalife'"...

In Spin, two articles.

The first calls Souleyman "[o]ne of the hottest stars of indie music," a quite remarkable designation, and one, the article underscores, which is quite unlikely. It goes on to say that, "Without a doubt, Omar Souleyman is the most popular Syrian wedding singer in the Western world. Beyond President Bashar al-Assad, he may be the next Syrian who an American music fan could name."

Souleyman calls attention to Syria's drastic water crisis, which played a major role in turning him into a musician: 'If the region hadn't fallen into a crippling drought, Souleyman might have remained a farmer. "It's a problem in the region," he says. "Even the wells have dried up and there are many issues with bringing water to people."'

On the paradox of Souleyman's success in the West: 'Zayid Al-Baghdadi, a criminal defense lawyer from Baghdad, says that neither he nor any of his Syrian friends had ever heard of Souleyman until he moved to Montreal. "When I first saw Omar perform here, I was just amazed by the cultural clash between him and the audience," he wrote via e-mail. "Here you have a middle-aged Arab man dressed in traditional bedouin clothing and a crowd of intoxicated, pot-smoking hipsters dancing frantically to his music. I think what has added to Omar's appeal in the West is the fact that his music has been slightly tweaked to better suit modern Western dance-music tastes."'

The other publicizes the release of the album and the video "Warni Warni," which really does kick ass.

Check out the two videos from the new release, "Warni Warni":

And "Wenu Wenu": 

Both are great, but it may be that, as some observers claim, the sounds of the keyboards (which imitate the mijwiz, used in traditional dabke, may have been softened up to suit the Western ear.

Of course, Souleyman's arrival on the "indie" scene isn't brand new -- for instance, he played Glastonbury in 2011:

And Bonaroo the same year:

It also seems to be the case that Souleyman is not as apolitical as it seems. Check out this song he did in tribute to Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Asad. 

Since it took me about 5 seconds to find this, you would imagine that at least one of the music journalists writing about Souleyman could have asked him about this song. I in no way want to trash Souleyman here for this recording, given that so many artists were forced to make such compromises (or felt they had to) in order to maintain their careers under Bashar's rule, but I do wonder why none of the journalists who have interviewed Souleyman bothered to do the research to find this, and ask the question.

The kind of "electronic dabke" produced by Souleyman is not unique to him alone, for there are a number of Syrians recording and performing in a similar vein. One who I particularly like is Saria al-Sawas, who I believe is better known in Syria and is more urbane than Souleyman.

Check out this video of her performing "Hajar" for a wedding (the bread and butter for such musicians):

If you like this one, go look for some more vids. There are lots out there. And also lots more of Omar Souleyman.

Algerian twist

Check out this youtube video from apollon1965 (who is no doubt Algerian), where he plays one side of an e.p. by an Algerian singer named Karoudji. The first track, "Brigitte Bardot Bardot," is very Cuban in its feel, especially when you get to the piano interlude starting at about 1:15, and it's not really a twist. Karoudji sings it in that distinctive francarabe style developed by Algerian popular musicians beginning in at least the 1930s.

I am unable to make out the title of second track (starting at 2:55) from the record jacket. It opens with a kind of flamenco guitar intro, but then shifts into a cover of Chubby Checker's 1961 hit "Let's Twist Again," which hit #8 on the US charts, and charted throughout Europe as well. "Let's Twist Again" in Algerian Arabic! It's a pretty decent cover too, rockin' sax solo.

According to apollon1965, Karoudj was a singer originally from Oran, who sang rock'n'roll and twist in the early 1960s. I'm not sure whether this was recorded prior to Algerian independence (July 1962) or after.

I've been able to find out nothing else about Karoudj thus far other than the fact that he also recorded a cover of Johnny Hallyday's 1961 single "24,000 Baisers." (It must have been a hit in France, as it was covered by several other artists, among them Dalida and Bob Azzam.) Here's the cover of Karoudji's EP.

According to the writeup by the amourdurocknroll.fr website, Karoudji recorded "24,000 Baisers" in French. The other tracks, "Si Tu Voulais," "Twist à B.B.," "Zinek," "Yasmina," and "Rock's Twist," seem to have been recorded in Arabic. The EP was released in 1963 (after independence) on the La Voix du Globe label, in Oran and Paris.

There is also a film about the twist in Algeria, director Mahmoud Zemmouri's Les Folles Années du twist (The Golden Years of the Twist), released in 1986. I've only seen some clips of it, but it is about two young Algerian men who are obsessed with rock'n'roll and dressing like hip rocksters and are disinterested in either working or the war of liberation. The only information I have about the music in the soundtrack is that it features at least one song by French pop star Richard Anthony, known for covering US rock'n'roll songs in French (as was Johnny Hallyday). Anthony even did a version of "Let's Twist Again," which he recorded in English.

Anthony was born Ricardo Anthony Btesh, in 1938 in Cairo. Son of a textile manufacturer originally from Syria, he lived the privileged life of the Levantine in pre-revolutionary Egypt, and was of course a polyglot, schooled in the UK and France. He launched his music career by recording covers of US rock songs in French, and had his first major hit as a rocker in France in 1958. 

There's another late-fifties early-sixties Algerian rock'n'roller -- Mahieddine Bentir, who put out "Optimiste Twist" in 1964. The song won the prize of the 5th festival de la chanson méditerraneéne (about which I've not been able to find anything). He sings it in French, but it has just a bit of Eastern flavor, and he even calls it a "twist Orientale." Music and lyrics were composed by Bentir himself. Perhaps the optimism he expresses is that of his newly independent country. It's recorded with a French group, Jean Claudric et son orchestre, who appeared on numerous French recordings (including some by the Algerian Jew and French pop star Enrico Macias, born Gaston Ghenassia), and it was put out on the El Frida label (which I assume is Algerian). (The song also seems also to have been issued under the name "Manach Dalam (Twist Oriental)" on the Spanish label Vergara.)

There is an even more remarkable rock'n'roll song from Bentir, very jazzy, called "Scooter," which I really love. This one is sung in Arabic. It's not clear when it was released, some sources say late fifties, others early sixties. It really rocks.

The only other track I've been able to find from Bentir is the rock song, "Prête-moi mille balles" (Lend me a thousand bullets), which apparently evokes the Algerian revolution. 

Bentir was by all accounts an important figure in this period, but I've not been able to find out much about him, and some of what I've found seems unreliable. For instance, the claim that he placed second in the 1966 Eurovision contest, and although his song was clearly superior, he was denied a victory because he was an Arab. But in fact he was not an entrant in Eurovision, that year or any year. (Algeria does not compete in Eurovision, in any case.)

But we do know for certain that Bentir was prominent enough to have been one of those Arab artists who appeared on Algerian television during the colonial period (between 1958 and 1962). Here's a photo of a Bentir appearance from 1959, which I took from the very fine documentary Alger Oran Paris: Les années music-hall.

Last note: I love this EP cover, put out by Philips in France, which was once for sale on-line, but alas, no more.

Love amid the ruins

I learned about this amazing and appalling vid from Edo Konrad, writing for the great +972 blog.

The vid features the Nahal Band (Lahakat HaNahal), a well-known music and theater group attached to the Nahal Group, combat units in which military service was combined with agricultural work on new agricultural settlements and kibbutzim. That is, we're talking about an music group sponsored by the Israeli military.

The video shows members of the group singing a love song and driving their jeep around over rugged, first on land where prickly pear cactus (sabr in Arabic, sabra in Hebrew) is growing. Palestinians would of course immediately recognize the cactus as the sign that this was the site of a Palestinian village, as Palestinian peasants typically planted sabr as a kind of fencing around their communities. (And the prickly pear is a delicious fruit.) Then we see the Nahal Band singing on the site of a ruined Palestinian village, one of the some 418 Palestinian villages and towns destroyed in the wake of the 1948-49 war.

I have no idea which of the many destroyed villages it is (I saw several when I did my fieldwork in 1984-85). According to Konrad, the film was probably shot in the mid-60s. The ruins, characteristically, are made to look quite old, so as not to give any impression that the inhabitants would in fact have been evacuated (in an act of ethnic cleansing) less than 20 years prior to the shoot.

The love song is “He Didn’t Know Her Name” by the celebrated songwriter and poet Haim Hefer, who died just a year ago. He was a canonical composer associated with the "heroic" years of the Zionist movement, who wrote for the Palmach, for the Nahal Band, and for classic Israeli films, including famous ones that date with Israel's Mizrahi (Jewish Arab) population, Salah Shabbati and Kazablan. (I've blogged about the latter and how it manages to simultaneously evoke and erase the Arabness of Jaffa, where it is set, and the "Eastern" character of its protagonists, who are Moroccan Jews. Hefer's compositions for the film, which are very far from the kind of music that Moroccan Jews in Israel were actually singing and performing at the time, play a role in this erasure/evocation.) Hefer was also the composer of another canonical Zionist song, "The Red Rock," a song about Petra, the famous Nabataean city in southern Jordan. According to Rebecca Stein, "Petra was a place long immortalized in Israeli myth, the subject of collective longing, popular song [most notably Hefer's], and children’s stories. Beginning in the 1950s, clandestine travel to this Nabatean city had been a virtual rite of passage for young Israeli men who risked their lives in enemy Jordanian territory for a glimpse of the city’s celebrated red sandstone cliff."

Fitting, then, that, given who Hefer was, that he be buried in Ein Hod Artists’ Village, in accordance with his wishes.

Ein Hod, as anyone who has read Susan Slyomovics' book The Object of Memory or seen Rachel Leah Jones' documentary 500 Dunam on the Moon knows, was founded in 1953, on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd, whose residents had been expelled. The charm and beauty of the artists' colony is largely a product of the original Palestinian village architecture, which was restored and remodeled according to the new residents' preferences. Imagine that the ruins we see in the video above were transformed into a quaint, bohemian artists' abode. That's what Ein Hod is, and this has been the fate of many Palestinian "ruins" throughout Israel, in West Jerusalem (for instance Ein Karem), Safad, Jaffa...

The video is a potentially a great teaching tool, particularly if you are using texts like Slyomovics or Rochelle Davis' Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced or chapter two ("Scenes of Erasure") of my book, Memories of Revolt.

I wish someone who reads this would identify the village in the Nahal Band video.

Tunisian rappers form union; Klay BBJ acquitted

Tunisia's rappers, of all Arab hip-hop artists, continue to be the most politicized. At least it would so appear.

BBC News reported on October 15 that Tunisian rappers are forming a union to defend their interests. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, "Born under the guidance of a minor trade federation called the CGL, the rappers union has little to do with work contracts and a lot to do with sending a signal to the powers that be. These appear unable to take any criticism, no matter where they come from, and especially if they call for social change."

Klay BBJ

 Meanwhile, AhramOnline reported on October 19 that rapper Klay BBJ (named after boxer Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali), had been acquitted on appeal, after serving six months of his jail sentence of 21 months. He had been convicted of insulting government officials, undermining public morals, and defamation, based on a performance he did together with rapper Weld El 15 during a concert at a sea resort south of Tunis. Weld El 15, notorious for his song "Boulicia Kleb" (Cops Are Dogs), was also convicted, but remains at large. (I wrote a brief post on Weld El 15 in April, here.)

 Aymen El-Fikih (l), Mustapha Fakhfakh (r) photo: AFP

Tunisian rappers Mustapha Fakhfakh and Aymen El-Fikih for their part are about to go to trial for "insulting public officials" and "affronting morals" in the course of protests surrounding the trial of Weld El 15.

Ziad al Rahbani's "Yellah Keshour Bara" and Sabreen's "Maz'ooj"

 I remember how blown away I was by Sabreen's album Maz'ooj, released in 2002. I particularly liked the songs which featured actor Mohammad Bakri's deep-bass spoken vocals (he is pictured on the bottom right on the album cover). And I also liked how the group incorporated, on a number of songs, a kind of hip-hop vibe. Listen, for instance, to the song "Wala‘" (Set Alight).

I had always thought that the album was so completely unique, that there was nothing like it.

And then I was listening again to Ziad al Rahbani's 1985 album Houdou Nisbi (which I picked up in Beirut in March), and noticed that Ziad's vocals on the song "Yellah Keshou Barra" are spoken as well, and Ziad's very clever, disco-ish, arrangement, as well as his deep, spoken vocals...remind me of Bakri on Maz'ooj. Listen to it here.

Could Ziad have been an influence on Sabreen when they recorded Maz'ooj?

more R'n'B turbans

Thanks to Nabeel for informing me about this gallery of African-American entertainers turbans, posted by Freddie Patterson for India Music Week.

If you've followed this blog, you will know that I don't just post about kufiyas, and sometimes do post on turbans on occasion. And I've posted some of the same photos as found in the gallery, and about most of the same artists. You can see my turban postings here -- there are quite a few.

But there were some revelations nonetheless. I just love this photo of R'n'B giant Louis Jordan.

And Aretha Franklin in a turban:

I had posted a photo of singer The Mighty Hannibal in a turban previously, but I found this vid, of him singing "Jerkin' the Dog," on a TV show, I guess, to be quite fun.

Kufiyaspotting: Paula Deen

This is a weird one, eh? Paula Deen, the celebrity chef lately accused of uttering racial epithets, was the Grand Marshal for the 2011 Rose Bowl Parade. She appeared in publicity photos wearing a red kufiya. Red, I guess, because it was the Rose Bowl, and she is from a "red state." But the kufiya???