Latin rhythms
Amal Choucri Catta joins in the jam
photo: Sherif Sonbol
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The Sunshine Band, Latin music, Open-Air Theatre, Cairo Opera House, 27 July. Ahmed Rabie Jazz Fusion Band, Open-Air Theatre, Cairo Opera House, 29 July
With Hamada playing percussion, Sherif drums, and Omar, Mohamed and others taking care of piano, keyboards and guitars, another, charismatic Mohamed gives a brilliant singing performance. There is also Olga, the star. But she comes later. She is given time to appear, not making her grand entrée until the fifth tune, when everyone has already been introduced and Mohamed has sung his way through Superstitions... Thus the Sunshine Band offered an enchanting selection of Latin and pop music. Theirs was an honest and subtle interpretation of South American tunes, played and sung with refreshing sincerity. On the whole it was a colourful and entertaining show, beginning with a dazzling piano performance, progressing through Latin rhythms and culminating in Tico-tico: textures light, tone superb, with soundscapes ranging from tempestuous to tranquil, and graced, in the fourth number, with Mohamed's Superstitions.
Then Olga came on: a charming blonde with a delightful smile. Judging by accent as well as name, her home town must be somewhere in Eastern Europe. I couldn't believe my ears when she began with "When marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway." I was hearing that tune for the sixth time this summer. It seems there are some melodies singers and musicians are particularly attracted to. This time, with Tico-tico, there were two. The rest of the programme, however, was quite different from all we have heard before. Following the delighted applause, Mohamed went for Angelina, Angelina. Having pleaded with her to cha-cha in several different places, he switched to a Brazilian beat, singing Café, café, which reminded me of a favourite oldie, "There's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil." This time, however, the coffee was served with presence, charm and aptitude: great rhythm, amazing guitar solo stupendous and exuberant vocals.
Mohamed was to come on again in a slower motion, singing another Latin number, Maria, Maria, over a jungle of sound. Then he went off to muse over the misery of the world in which we live, where "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer," and where the entire system is in dire need of a change. Nobody had to wait for too long as the mood quickly turned sunny once again with Olga assuring the audience that "some day you'll be alright." Once again the mood shifted, with the two singers turning to a Mexican tune that evoked, in many rhythms and as many colours, the fabulous atmosphere of the carnival. Listeners began to sway giddily while they stood in the aisles. And they never stopped clapping or cheering as they did so.
The second part of the show started rather surprisingly with the well-known melody Quand nous jouions a la marelle, cerisier rose et pommier blanc, played on the keyboard, with the rest of the band contributing an extraordinary array of sounds and textures. We had some improvisation, some bravura from the instrumentalists, but the melody was always there, as fresh as the cherry-tree in the song. Yet the mood was to change again, and again the audience found itself in Mexico, with a tune reminiscent of Viva Zapata, or maybe even Blood and Sand. It could have been anything, anywhere; even a spaghetti- western like For a Few Dollars More, with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly hovering in the background. Here was a haunting melody evocative of glittering spurs and horses' hooves on rocky hills, of loud Olles echoing from deserted arenas. It was Latin with a difference and the audience loved it. A number of virtuoso-solos followed, mingling oriental sequences with the Latin harmony and ending with a Spanish "Ah-ah- ah".
"I'm sorry, Mama, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry" was recited and chanted by Hassan, Mohamed's young son, a surprisingly talented boy who went on enumerating all his horribly evil deeds, in a moto- perpetuo of words pouring like a shower into the mike, and repeatedly ending with "I'm sorry, Mama". It was excellently performed, though the text was rather daring for a boy of this age. Fortunately Olga returned with "I'm so lonely and blue when I'm without you", sung in Spanish, and "I still got the blues for you". By this time, we had drifted away from Latin shores, and berthed at pop both vocally and instrumentally. The concert came to a fascinating close with the sad Con te partiro (Time to say goodbye) -- enchantingly evocative of dreams unfulfilled, of long lost love and nostalgia -- beautifully sung in Italian and English by the two ravishing singers, who gave a fabulous display of their voices: Mohamed a passionate baritone, Olga a lovely soprano. The audience showed their appreciation effusively. But the end had not come yet: returning to a livelier mood, singers and musicians took up more Latin rhythms for their farewell tune.
The four soloists, two guitarists, one percussionist and one keyboard player now gracing the open-air theatre delivered a tremendous beat. Their silences were eloquent and their solos quite exciting, though they did have a tendency for repetition. They have the talent of creating, at times, a brooding atmosphere, filled with variety, while at other times they employed a plethora of sounds. Suddenly percussions, the centre-piece of the entire ensemble, took over again, delivering a never-ending beat that never stops ringing in your head. Thus Ahmed Rabie and his jazz fusion band started out with a somewhat tame number, letting the decibels develop gradually, so as not to drive the audience away from the start. But it does get louder with Ahmed Rabie, and when the drums go on their nerve- racking plunge into those endless, ferocious beats, it simply takes your breath away.
It happened again that night. At the end of the eighth number one couldn't hear anything but the bat in the brain. Yet the audience didn't seem to mind -- neither the decibels nor the beat, nor even the frequently repetitive tunes based mainly on improvisation. At times, however, improvisation tends to take over, which was the case in the present show. We had quite a lot of bravura, mainly from the drums: they had the spotlights all to themselves, while the rest of the soloists were mostly left in the dark; though the keyboard and guitar were excellent in themselves. The question did come up, however, after around 20 minutes of listening to the music: what kind of jazz were we getting that night? A fusion of what? We did have the benefit of many of virtuoso feats on different instruments, but even this eventually became repetitive and devoid of colour. The "music" was simply assuming dynamic structures, presenting a bold alternative to conventional improvisation that is originally based on standard chord structures over a four-to-the bar beat. Much has changed, it is true, but must we be forced to wonder whether jazz is music at all?
Two centuries ago jazz started as ragtime, a highly syncopated instrumental style in which the piano was predominant. Later the blues craze began, originating from Spirituals, and subsequently, jazz embraced a diversity of styles. Dixieland was followed by sophisticated jazz as it spread to New York, Paris and London, becoming all the rage. The big band emerged, followed by a number of styles, like Swing and Be- bop, later christened "modern jazz". Other styles emerged in Europe, in the Far and Near East, based largely on sound and percussion. The latter is the case of Ahmed Rabie's "jazz fusion", which ends up in the melting pot of percussions, giving us a rather dry performance. We even had a so called tabla-trio in the second part of the show, with Ramadan Mansour and Ahmed Rabie, who gave excellent performances on their percussion instruments. But when Rabie returned to his centre-piece, delivering tempestuous drums and percussion decibels, a number of listeners decided to leave. We did, nevertheless, enjoy the virtuoso solos of the keys and the guitar, though we would have appreciated less repetition and a little more variety. The musicians are excellent: maybe they'll give us more music and less sound next time.
