Galeet Dardashti

Galeet Dardashti's website is here.

Music, bio, programs, schedule...

Rabbi Haim Louk sings piyyutim and Andalousian

Recorded in Los Angeles, where Haim Louk formerly served, and backed by the Orchestre Andalou de Rabat. Presently Haim Louk resides in Israel. He was a protegé and pupil of the celebrated Moroccan Andalousian master, Abdessadeq Cheqara.



Here, Haim Louk doing Andalousian, backed by the same orchestra, but on a later occasion. I guess recorded in Morocco?



More great concert footage of Haim Louk can be found here.

Footage of Cheikh Raymond Leiris

The original footage is from Algerian television, from the colonial era, which began broadcasting in 1957. The colonial authorities broadcast Arab musicians (in an attempt to co-opt them), particularly on the show, "Rythmes et Chansons," which ran from 1958 to 1962. It seems to have been broadcast in France, on a show that featured Enrico Macias (born Gaston Ghrenassia), who was Cheikh Raymond's protegé, and his father, the violin player Sylvain Ghrenassia, a member of Cheikh Raymond's troupe.

The title of the video is, of course, all wrong. Cheikh Raymond was not Amazigh (Berber), but an Algerian Jew.

Moshe Habusha, Piyyut (Religious Devotional Poem), to the tune of Um Kulthum's "Al-Ward al-Gameel"

Read about the remarkable Jerusalem cantor and payy'tan (one trained in the art of singing piyyutim) Moshe Habusha here.

A first-rate study of the piyyutim (and bakashot) is Kay Kaufman Shelemay's Let Jasmine Rain Down.

Five Sufi Hadras in Egypt

Here is footage of five Sufi hadras, courtesy ethnomusicologist Michael Frischkopft, filmed 1996-1998.

Five Sufi hadras: Sufi chanting in Egypt 1996-1998 from Michael Frishkopf on Vimeo.

This is extremely useful, especially because Michael translated the lyrics of the chants.

The most interesting footage, to my mind, is that of the munshid Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami, who is simply terrific, and is a real superstar in Egypt. Thousands and thousands of people show up whenever he performs. I've seen him perform twice at mulids in Cairo, and once at the Festival of Sacred Music in Fez. I highly recommend the one CD of Shaykh Yasin that is available in the US, The Magic of the Sufi Inshad. He has released many, many cassettes in Egypt, many of which I purchased when I live there. I assume that they are now available there on CD.

Ziad Hamdan / ShiftZ

Please check out Ziad Hamdan (ex-Soap Kills) and his band ShiftZ on ReverbNation. Music to listen to and videos to watch. Esla7hat featuring Maryam Saleh is especially terrific.