Review: Muslim Folk Singers

Subject: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 07:46 PM

There seem to be a fair few Mudcatters below the line who are a tad, um, enthusiastic about discussing Islam. I've decided to provide 'em with a soundtrack. Be warned - some of these songs are breathtakingly beautiful.

This little beauty for starters: Echoes Of Sufi Chants - Kafi Bulleh Shah - Allan Fakir

And a bit more magic: Sain zahoor Ahmed - Nachna Painda Hey

Heading further south: Malayalam Mappila song

This one's a corker: Pukhto Biltoon & Mazari (Pakistan/Afghanistan)

Heading over to Iran: Iranian ( Kurdish ) traditional folk song

Regular dudes: Sufi Music, Lucknow, India

This is brilliant: Afghan Sufi Ensemble - International Sufi Music Festival

And finally to Morocco. If you watch just one of these clips, watch this! Oh that my local folk club was a quarter this electrifying. Best clapping ever, too: Gnawa Lila with Mustafa Bakbou and a mesmerizing Dancer

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 07:51 PM

Don't forget Richard Thompson and "Cat Stevens" Yousiff Ibrahim.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Rasener
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 07:58 PM

Cassius Clay

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 08:15 PM

Muhammed Ali - We Came In Chains

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 09:54 PM

A ritual of the Bektashi dervish order (which changes gear in a freaky way half way through)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BEu8ryoMok

Domestic celebration of the birthday of the Blessed Ali by a group of women in Iran (nothing musically extraordinary, but it won't be what you expect)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f01JZqCTtNM

The blind Turkish Alevi bard Asik Veysel with his beautiful song "My dear darling the black earth" (lots of recordings of this one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOZfjGjmEGs

Another Alevi singer, Ali Ekber Cicek, with his most famous song and its amazing saz accompaniment (I heard him sing this a few months before he died, to a big audience listening in total silence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYEe9dfiHog

A Turkish woman singer with a lament for the martyred Husein (translation provided)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFyh7nxzs6Q

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 10:21 PM

Thanks SC and JC--these are really fine examples!!

A

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 04:06 AM

Nice one, Jack! Particularly enjoyed Asik Veysel.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: matt milton
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 05:14 AM

Yeah, Asik Veysel's great. If you like him, I would recommend the Azerbaijani saz player Edalat Nasibov too. He has an album called Art of the Saz.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 05:30 AM

Thank you Mr. Spleen and Mr. Jack.

Those are some fine examples you have posted.

For a different view of the news http://www.arabnews.com frequently has articles that will appear weeks later in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Sincerely.
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 06:56 AM

Thanks to Spleencringe for starting this thread. I believe strongly that understanding and enjoyment of the world's music is an important key to understanding the world's peoples, and to realising that we've got more to share with the rest of humanity than bombs and bullets.

At a time when every Muslim on the planet is being hounded because of the actions of a few lunatics, it is good to remember that the music of Islam is immensely rich and varied, and for the most part extremely beautiful.

To anyone who hasn't heard them already, I can thoroughly recommend Topic's reissue on thre CDs of the magnificent 6LP set, Music in the World of Islam. They're still on release and you can get them through Topic's website

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Joe G
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:22 AM

Well said Fred - understanding and enjoying each other's culture brings us closer together. I have just been stunned by seeing the new mosque in the Little Horton area of Bradford which must be one of the finest new buildings in the country.

I seek out and enjoy music from across the world (though I do have a blind spot with far eastern music I must admit!) as well as being a passionate fan of folk music from our own isles.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:47 AM

They sounded extremely good, well performed and full of eastern promise, but...

I'm afraid to say that they didn't realy do much for me:-( I guess my ear may be too 'westernised' as I found quite a lot od it a bit outside my 'comfort zone'. It's funny because I realy enjoy the bits of Eastern music that various people have put into Western songs - From the Beatles Maharishi Yogi days to Stings Desert Rain (Is it called that?). I also enjoy some of the Bhangra mixes that have charted, or at least given air time on Radio 2!

I suppose I just enjoy pop music too much and am not a real folkie at heart:-P Mind you, having said that, I love Highland and Northumbrian pipes, Finnish and Danish dance music and Dire Straits. So, those of you offended by my comments please feel free to scoff at my so called 'tastes' :D

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:48 AM

Joe, I must admit to a blind spot as far as Chinese and Japanese classical music is concerned. But have you listened to any of the music of south east Asia, Bali, Java, Laos etc? Wonderful stuff.

BTW. Mosques. My local council is currently closing half its libraries, and many of its other leisure services buildings. Naturally, a lot of us have become involved in the fight to keep them open. One particulerly fine building however has become the scene of opposition from a different section of the community, because of sumours that a mosque is scheduled to be built on its site. If the daft sods had bothered to check the facts they would have found that particular building is not down for closure for another five years.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Scorpio
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:57 AM

At the Roskilde Festival in Denmark a couple of years ago, I was amazed by a Pakistani singer, Faiz Ali Faiz. He is continuing the tradition of Sufi singing championed by the late Fatih Nusrat Khan, and his concerts are an experience in expressionism. Check him out!

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 10:24 AM

Great thread!

I've recently been trying to learn Tabla and Dholak but I've been doing more listening than practicing! That's led me to a lot of 'muslim folk' that I wouldn't otherwise have heard.

Glad there's some mention of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: here's Dam Mast Qalandar. I'll have to check out Faiz Ali Faiz too.

And some more Qawwali music: Sabri brothers

And Spleen - thanks for starting this thread, and especially for posting the Gnawa Lila and Mustafa Bakbou clip - I now want a gimbri too!

Pete.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Wolfgang
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 10:44 AM

Beautiful music to my ears. I can hear a faint similarity to the Greek Rebetiko.

Most of the links BTW go to Sufi music which is not always welcomed warmly in some understandings of Islam. And Sufism is for a minority of Sufi not restricted to Islam. Abraham Maimonides for instance was a 13th century Jew who considered himself a Sufi.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 12:58 PM

In Islam, some things you do with your voice are not counted as "music" at all, let alone folk music, though they are in the same modes and use the same vocal techniques as secular music. The call to prayer and Koranic recitation are the commonest ones.

Try a YouTube search on "ezan" (Turkish) or "adhan"/"azan" (Arabic) for a bunch of calls to prayer, or "Quran recitation" for the other. They are common to nearly all Muslims, and if oral transmission and variation are the criteria for it, they certainly are folk music, even if none of the singers doing it would think so.

This Bosnian guy is staggering:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ov9CU9bdQ

There is a remarkable African tradition of rapid-fire duet Quran recitation. I can't find any YouTubes of that.

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 01:09 PM

I'm not sure if this is what you mean by "folk music" but here is one link to an African Muslim singer and one link to an African Muslim musician.

Mali - African Music Legends - Salif Keita 3

and

Toumani Diabate @ Metrotech Brooklyn (kora player)

Subject: RE: Review: Muslim Folk Singers
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 01:10 PM

Another call to prayer with a completely different kind of voice, from the other end of the Balkans, from Nurettin Bulut at the old mosque in Edirne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8emU4ElZNd4