EGYPT: Kamilya Jubran, Palestinian singer and composer, performs in Cairo
- 00:00:09
- ITN Source
EGYPT: Kamilya Jubran, Palestinian singer and composer, performs in Cairo
Caireans were treated last night (July 17) to a sublime marriage between European electronic music and Arabic Oud music and singing by one of the most accomplished Palestinian musicians. Palestinian Oud virtuoso Kamilya Jubran and her Swiss electronic music collaborator Werner Hasler performed at the Azhar park overlooking old Cairo, entrancing an overflowing concert hall with the haunting, melancholy compositions from their 2005 album, Wameedd. It was the third time the pair have performed in Cairo, and the crowd responded enthusiastically to the unique blend of musical styles that Jubran and Hasler have exposed audience across Europe and other countries in the Middle East to. After last night's concert, Jubran said that the innovative blend of musical styles was about cultivating an openness to difference. "Meetings between me and Werner are like curiosity, a desire to know the other, without any preconceptions, and without promotions. And this determination and curiosity gives the music the character you see," she said. Jubran, who was born in Akka, inside of present day Israel, and who comes from a family of musicians and instrument makers, first made her name as the lead performer in Sabreen, a Palestinian ensemble, that blended music and resistance politics into its work. For the last five years Jubran has been touring Arab and European countries performing her own work and collaborations like the haunting blend of Oud, electronica and her distinctive, yearning vocals that the audience at the "Geneina" theater enjoyed last night. Jubran says regardless of where she plays, she never knows what the reaction to "Wameedd" will be. "Wherever I perform, I don't know what the response will be. Regardless of whether the audience does or does not speak Arabic, whether they are close to Arab culture or actually Arab or not, I am always afraid," she said. Swiss electronic musician and trumpet player Werner Hasler provides the electronic background for Jubran's Oud playing and plaintive lyrics, in songs like "Amshi" and "Al-Mawjatu Taa't", which take their lyrics from Arab poets like Gibran Khalil Gibran, Paul Shaoul and Aicha Amaout. Hasler said he hoped an Arabic speaking audience would be able to appreciate the songs on a deeper level than audiences in Europe. "We often play in France, or in Europe or generally in Europe, and a lot of people don't understand what Kamilya is singing. And I think it is great to have an audience who understands the lyrics of the songs. It makes a big difference," he said. While Jubran and Hasler's performance played to a sold out audience at the Geneina theater, the popularity of unconventional musical acts like theirs comes in a poor second to the pop acts that dominate the contemporary music scene in the Arab world and its presumed cultural capital, Cairo. So it was an eclectic blend of nomads in search of an authentic sound, Oud aficionados, and anti-pop idol revolutionaries who turned up at last night's show. One audience member, Omar Mustafa, said that Jubran was making a unique musical contribution. "She is not the only one but she's done this in a way that is unique to her and a distinguished way and her last performance, the album "Wameedd", which she is going to perform tonight, in which she will sing prose poetry (modern verse). She mixed Arab and electronic music in a new way that no one has ever done before and I think this is one of her innovations," he said. It was, in all, a night of musical exploration for the faithful and the curious who came to the serenity of al-Azhar park to listen to a hypnotizing and unique musical collaboration.
ITN Source | July 19, 2007
