Today is not just the #sufism vs #modernism concert with @FathySalama and Sheikh Mahmoud Tohamy, But also a big teaching day. Salama visited Prof Jonathan Shannon’s Arab Music Cultures Class while @znzmusicacademy… instagram.com/p/B23oZQspStG/…
He started his career playing metal covers, like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, admits @FathySalama, and actually played at a Khalidiya hotel in Abu Dhabi for about 8 months in 1978.
Eventually he ended up going to NY where studied jazz as part of Barry Harris workshops. And fittingly, he connected with @SunRaUniverse Arkestra and even opened for them in Egypt.
Space is the Place.
In the 80s, @FathySalama played with some of the Arab world’s biggest pop artists like @amrdiab. As well as doing music for theater, jungles, and eventually forming Sharkiat, to reinvent Arabic Roots.
First concert with Sharkiat was in 1989 in Berlin. He made a decision to leave a lucrative commercial music career to a more experimental orientation.
For more experimental “world music”, @FathySalama argues that Germany is one of the most open places in the world.
Egypt.
The collaboration with @YoussouNdourSN on Egypt won a Grammy award. It was started before 9-11, but took on different implications after it was released as it sought to emphasize Islam as a religion of peace.
From Sheikh Mahmoud al Tohamy’s YouTube channel, an enthusiastic video of al Mawlid.
Q: how would you explain “Sufism vs Modernism?”
@FathySalama: “come hear it tonight.”
He wanted to find a collaborator who was willing to experiment within the tradition. Music consists of rhythm, melody and accompaniment. The focus in Sufi vs Modernism is to especially innovate within the harmonies and arrangements.
Like jazz, this music is based on improvisation within the form. Student question about how he maintains authenticity within the tradition, but also acknowledging that what is considered original has tk do with when it was first recording.
You have to know and work within the form, but also innovate within it. But sometimes innovation can be destructive - just throwing a 4/4 House rhythm under a Gnawa form, for example.
If you don’t have enough flexibility, you’ll die. - @FathySalama
About 95% of the big Egyptian bands who came out of the 2011 period, like @CairoKee for example, were his students, said @FathySalama
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