OT: Did someone say Arabic music? (Paging Gerry. . .)

Date: 26 May 2003 14:50:46 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.afro-latin
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You mentioned having moved on to Arabic music lately. I would be very
interested in exchanging notes with you on that subject. If you would
rather discuss this by e-mail, you can reach me at
email-address-deleted. (I need to create a new address or
something.)
I'm not a musician, so I can't discuss this music with you on that
level, but I have listened to a lot, and can make recommendations (in
some areas anyway) that are at least informed. Whether you'll share
my taste or not is another matter. It sounded as though you are
focused on North African music, and I listen more to Egyptian,
Lebanese, and Syrian things; though I've seen Hassan Hakmoun perform
at least three times. (I've seen you mention him.) In fact, if
anything, I've seen more live performances of North African music than
I have of music from the Levant, but I've listened to a lot more
recorded Levantine (if that's the word) music.
Anyway, my favorites (to varying degrees of preference) include: Oum
Kalthoum, Asmahan, Farid el Atrache, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Riad
el-Sounbatti (not just as composer, but as an oudist, and even as a
pretty good singer), Fairouz, Mohammed Abdo, Saleh Abdel Gafor, Samira
Twefic, Milhem Baraket, and George Wassouf for some old live
recordings (though that's kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel).
North African: Hassan Hakmoun, the Master Musicians of Jajouka (of
course), Abdelli (who has a good new CD out, though there's a skip on
the 4th track on my copy), Houria Aichi, and Dimi Mint Aba (both of
whom I know from live performances).