More on Israeli Mediterranean Music

Edwin Seroussi, "'Mediterraneanism, in Israeli music: an idea and its permutations." Great article, with sound samples.

Website of Zehava Ben

Check out Zehava Ben's official website.

Listen to Bustan Abraham

Bustan Abraham is one of the bands discussed in Benjamin Brinner's article.

Here are some samples of their music:

Muwashah (from Pictures Through The Painted Window)

Go here to listen to selections from their self-titled album.

Pop Inshad

Here are a blog posting and an article from the Washington Post about "Pop Inshad," which has become massively popular in the Gulf and the Middle East. The most popular of these singers appears to be Sami Yusuf, a British citizen whose parents are Azerbaijani, and who has pop star looks. His videos are quite popular in Egypt, and Patricia Kubala explains why in a recent article in Transnational Broadcasting Studies (13). And Walter Armbrust provides an excellent analysis of Yusuf's video clip "Al Mu'allim" in the same issue of TBS.

Selim Nassib's novel about Umm Kalthoum

Today's New York Times Book Review contains a review of Selim Nassib's novel I Loved You For Your Voice, a fictionalized account of poet and lyricist Ahmed Rami for the great Egyptian diva, Umm Kalthoum. Here's what's interesting about the review is that it recommends the following: "Readers interested in the powerful story of Kalthoum's life would do better to read [Virginia] Danielson's intelligent and moving biography, 'The Voice of Egypt.'"

Bravo for Ginny!

(But does her book contain details such as these, which reviewer Lorraine Adams apparently derives from Nassib's text: As Om's popularity grows, rumors about her personal life dog her. Why is she celibate? Is she a lesbian?")

Islamic/Sufi Music CD Tracklist

Here's the tracklist to the CD I passed out on Thursday:

1. "Taa Deem (Remix)," Asian Dub Foundation, Star Rise: Remixes (Remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook)
2. "Sweet Pain (Remix)," Joi, Star Rise: Remixes (Remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook)
3. "Samai Shadd-Araban," Al Kindi Ensemble, Arab Classical Music
4. "Concerning the seeking of salvation, Khalid Belrhouzi featuring Yusuf Islam, An Introduction to the Burdah by Sharaf al-Din Abi Abdullah al-Busiri
5. "Qur'an Recitation And Azan," Unidentified, Egypt - Echoes Of The Nile

Jonathan Shannon & the Fes World Sacred Music Festival of 2004

Read what Shannon says about the Fes Sacred Music Festival of '04 (scroll down a ways), and compare it to what he says about the '02 festival ("Sultans of Spin," p. 270. (He's pictured here with his wife, Deborah Kapchan; check out her remarks on the Gnawa.)

Najat Aatabou website with downloads

Najat Aatabou is one of Morocco's foremost female singers. Two fine CD's that give a fine sampling of Najat's large corpus of songs have been released in the West, Country Girls & City Women and Voice of the Atlas. The Chemical Brothers sample her on their 2005 hit, "Calvanize." Check out Najat's website and the free mp3's.