Song of the day, Nov 13, 2005

A Sunday and a longish post on classical music. This time it is Arabic classical music. Simon Shaheen is a Palestine born oud and violin virtuoso and composer. He grew up in the Israel city of Haifa.

Of growing up as a Palestinian musician Shaheen says, "Living in Israel, I couldn't go to any of the Arab countries. I remember when I was like five years old, playing the oud and the violin, everyone who listened to me used to say 'What a talent, it's so sad that this little boy can't go and play in Beirut and Cairo and Damascus.' You know we're talking about surrounding cities and countries that the borders were closed. I couldn't go there. So one way to fulfill this dream was by coming to the United States in 1980 and as an immigrant, obtaining the citizenship and the American passport, and then and go and visit the Arab countries."

The first piece is from a historic concert "Two Tenors and Qantara" -- the two tenors being Wadi El Safi (the Voice of Lebanon) and Sabah Fakhri along with Simon Shaheen's orchestra Qantara -- at Las Vegas in the spring of 2000.

Song: Al Qantara (listen)
Album: Two Tenors & Qantara
(I could only link to a sample to this song. If you come home sometime, I will play it for you guys. It is really amazing.)

The next one is an amazing fusion between Arabic and Indian classical music. You can hear both indian and arabic classical music without one drowning the other.

Song: Dawn (Rag Kirwani - Maqam Nahawand) (listen ... search for simon shaheen on the page)
Artists: Simon Shaheen and Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Finally, the next two are from Simon Shaheed's latest album 'Blue Flame'. The music in this album has elements of jazz added to the arabic orchestra. Nevertheless, the music is really good.

Song: Olive Harvest (listen)
Album: Blue Flame

Song: Blue Flame (listen)
Album: Blue Flame