Iraq: The Maqams of Baghdad

Here is another stellar recording in the series issued by Ocora, the label of Radio France, featuring amazing music from around the world.  Recorded in the Iraqi capital and ancient city of immense historical importance in 1972, The Maqams of Baghdad, runs not too far over 50 minutes and features three compositions in this traditional style, including the Husseini, Hleilawi and Seigah, with the first and last lasting just over 20 minutes each and the middle about half that length.

The hypnotic performances by vocalist Yusuf Omar and the Al Tchaighi Al Baghdadi ensemble, including Abdallah Ali on the santur, Sha-ubi Ibrahim and Hassan Ali on djoze, Abdul Razzak Madjid on tabla, Kan'an Mohamed Salih and Dia' Mahmoud Ahmad on deff are just spectacular.  Important with any recordings of music from other lands, the liner notes by Professor Scheherazade Qassim Hassan, who taught at the University of Baghdad from 1967-1982, established that city's Center for Traditional Music, and later taught in London, Paris and Prague written nearly a quarter century later, are very information and enlightening.

Dr. Hassan wrote that the maqam vocal tradition likely dates back to as far back as the 8th century and, with deep connections to other parts of the Islamic world, given Baghdad's central location, necessarily evolved.  She added, as is the case throughout the world, that intensive modernization and Westernization, not to mention economic, political and social conflict, led to a dramatic loss of performers and a simplification of the form.  Moreover, she emphasized the fact that the maqam in Iraq, of which there were some 50 examples, was differentiated from the maqam of other Arab countries in that it specifically concerned vocalization.

These three pieces are remarkable and indicative of what often happens to the traditional music of countries around the world when conditions change dramatically.  In Iraq, Saddam Hussein took control of the nation seven years after his recording and the terrible war with Iran followed, during which Professor Hassan left for Europe.  Hussein's ouster by the United States in the Second Gulf War involved more turmoil in the nation and Middle Eastern politics is, of course, incredibly turbulent and dangerous currently.  This recording, however, is a reminder of the amazing musical history of this ancient society and its culture.

Habib Yammine: Thurayya Pleiades

Habib Yammine is a Lebanese percussionist, composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher whose doctoral dissertation was on the popular music of Yemen and this album, released on the French Le Chant du Monde label in 2008, is a masterful display of Arabic percussion.  Yammine plays the riqq, a small frame drum with cymbals held in the hands, the daff, a larger frame drum, and the darbouka, which has a goblet shape.  

Yammine is joined by his wife Aicha Redouane, who also plays the daff as well as chants, while Oussama Chraibi, a native of Morocco, plays the bongo, the double drum often associated with Cuban music, though Yammine noted in a very helpful interview in the liners that 1940s music in Egypt fused Cuban with native sounds.

Naturally, a listener of this album has to really like percussion, especially those of the Arabic world played by the hands, because there is well over an hour with the eleven pieces, but for those who do get a chance to hear this or other recordings of Middle Eastern percussion (including amazing Persian music, for example), the rewards are many.

The precision, varied rhythms based on several beat patterns, and the chants, along with the crystalline production is quite hypnotic and entrancing and it is not only great to read Yammine's interview with ethnomusicologist Gilles Delebarre, but Redouane's essay gives a poetic interpretation of her husband's art.  For example, she writes of the alchemy in his work that "is quite simply love, a love recounted . . . in flashes of light as he tells of the seasons and their passing, of succeeding generations of human beings, rolled out by his drums across the way of Time."

It is telling when Yammine, is replying to a question from Delebarre about the first piece having an unusual 19-beat rhythmic pattern, tells him that "you don't go to the sea to count the waves, you go to be lulled by it, to be carried aloft on the crest of the waves."  This is a reminder of the best advice this blogger has heard about how to listen to music:  try to follow the sounds, not the notes.  As adherents of the mystical Sufi form of Islam, the musicians compose and play in such a way, as Redouane noted, that it is "a nver-ending source of joy [that] fills the present moment with fruitfulness."

Mohammed Aman: The Tradition of Hejaz (Saudi Arabia)

Having just read Karen Armstrong's history of Islam, this was a good time to revisit this excellent recording of the traditional music of the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia by the powerful singer and oud player Mohammed Aman and ensemble, released by the French label Ocora in 2001. Aman is said in the very informative liners by ethnomusicologist Jean Lambert to be "the last exponent in a long line of hijazi style musicians" and performs pieces both a capella, accompanying himself on the oud, a lute-like instrument, or with an ensemble utilizing the qanun, or zither, the violin, and a variety of percussion instruments, like the tar, darbuka, masga and naqrazan.

The first piece, sung solo by Aman and a prime example of his mastery of melisma (the singing of a group of notes for one syllable in a lyric), is a religious poem about the holy city of Mecca, while songs concern pilgrimage sites including Mecca, love poems, and a paean to the prophet Mohammed, some of these including lines dating back to the 8th century, whereas the "Ya ahi al-hawa" or "To People of Passion," has a poem written by Ibrahim Khafaji (1926-2017,) who composed the national anthem of the country.  As stated by Lambert, the history of music from the Hejaz has not been well documented or known but "thanks to the generosity of Mohammed Aman and his musicians, music-lovers in both the Levant and the West now have access to this heritage."  The Ocora label has many amazing releases of music from around the world and this is an excellent example from the Middle East.

The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan

The Silk Road Project is an extraordinary undertaking--founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998 to foster cultural understanding, dialogue and creation in those parts of the Middle East and Asia along the fabled Silk Road trade route.

After fifteen years, it continues along a successful and distinguished path producing remarkable projects of all kinds, including, of course, musical endeavors.  One of the early outcomes of the project was the 2002 double-disc The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan, issued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.  The label's description for the album asks, "What if Marco Polo had owned a tape recorder?" 

There are forty-seven pieces totaling over two hours and twenty-five minutes of spellbinding music from Turkey to Japan, including areas not well-known to many people, including the Central Asian regions of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and others.

It is impossible, really, to select highlights because the music is uniformly good throughout.  Instrumentals and pieces featuring vocals are given a good balance and there are Tuva throat singers, Japanese shakuhachi (flute), Persian musicians, the amazing Chinese pipa master Wu Man, and street performers. 

The first disc is given over to professionals playing the classic music of the several countries featured under the heading "Masters and Traditions," while the second is for "amateurs" in folk settings on the disc titled "Minstrels and Lovers," with the latter having sub-categories of "The Nomadic Sound," "Traditions of Festivity," and "Spiritual Music."

Playing the entire album at one sitting can understandably daunting, particularly if the listener has little or no background in the music of the varied places, but this blogger, having had some experience with Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Tuvan/Mongolian music, was captivated and listened straight through spellbound by the diversity, beauty and talent represented.

Unfortunately, this set was purchased without the 47-page booklet with extensive notes by Ma, Jean During and Ted Levin, the latter two producers while Ma has served as artistic director of the project since its inception.  Presumably, the liners have plenty of good information about the project, the various countries, the musicians, the instruments and the pieces. 

In any case, The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan is a mightily impressive compendium, easily one of the best music anthologies this listener has heard, and one of the best "world music" recordings, as well.  While it might be too much to digest at one time, its many pleasures can be sampled in small doses and be very effective as a tool for discovering parts of the world little or not known to Americans raised on Western forms of music only.

For those who have sampled "world music" somewhat extensively, this should be an indispensable addition to a collection.