Oud Around the Arab World [IMPORT]

1. Halam Ya Eid

2. Ya Hnayyina

3. Sanabel,

4. Zourouni

5. Babel, Nareyn

6. Hala La Layya

7. Shiwan

8. Akafeekum

9. Johnny Guitar

10. Tali'a Min Beyt Abuha

11. Um el-Khelkhal

12. Chima Li Wali

13. el-Bint el-Shalabiyya

14. Basra

15. Beyn el-D

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
Munir Bashir was one of the greatest soloists of oud and one of the greatest musicians of the Arab World. Born in the northern Iraq, Munir Bashir belonged to a family of very gifted musicians who have passed on from father to son the noble art of playing the oud (lute).

Simon Jargy, a professor at the University of Geneva, writes: "He was but five years old when (together with his brother who also became a well-known lutanist) he was taught the first rudiments of lute playing by his father who had become impregnated with the purest oriental and Arab musical traditions of Baghdad, the old capital of the Abbasid Caliphs. Knowing all the subtleties of Arab music and mastering all the secrets of oud playing, Munir Bashir has rapidly become a great artist and an unrivalled virtuoso, giving back to this instrument the importance it had at the time of the Thousand and One Nights. After World War II, he founded an academy of music in Baghdad with a view of teaching oud playing to talented young people. Then he was appointed as a professor at the Art Academy where he succeeded his master Mohieddine Haïdar. He became also head of the musical program for the Iraqi broadcasting Co. Wanting to widen his knowledge, Munir Bashir went to Budapest where he studied traditional folk song and music. In 1965 he obtained a doctor's degree in Budapest and was appointed there as an assistant lecturer at the Academy of Science in the department of folk art."

Product Description
Collection of popular folk and classical pieces, played with traditional small orchestra. A little on the light side, but with good rhythms. It is valuable because it contains many popular tunes from Arab world.

Tracks:

Halam Ya Eid
Ya Hnayyina
Sanabel,
Zourouni
Babel, Nareyn
Hala La Layya
Shiwan
Akafeekum
Johnny Guitar
Tali'a Min Beyt Abuha
Um el-Khelkhal
Chima Li Wali
el-Bint el-Shalabiyya
Basra
Beyn el-D

Album Description

Collection of popular folk and classical pieces, played with traditional small orchestra. A little on the light side, but with good rhythms. It is valuable because it contains many popular tunes from Arab world.

Customer Reviews:

TRULY AWFUL!.......2003-01-11

"A little light" says the Amazon description of this CD. That's gotta be one of the understatements of all time.

I'm a big fan of the oud, and Munir Bashir is a master of the classical oud. However, I've always felt that solo oud performances of taqasim get a bit dry after a while -- I long for the extra energy that comes from adding just a doumbek or other instruments. (As an example, listen to Volume 4 of the "Music of Islam" series to hear some killer high-energy oud.) So when I read that on this CD Bashir was accompanied by other Middle Eastern instruments, I had very high hopes of getting something closer to, say, Rabih Abou-Khalil or Joe Zeytoonian.

So you can imagine my shock and disappointment when I turned on this CD and heard a reverb-laden oud playing Arabic and Western pop tunes, with accompaniment that sounds like bad keyboard imitations of real instruments. Though there are probably a few good pieces on the CD, they are more than offset by other that are simply awful. Who could have guessed that with enough reverb, an oud can be made to sound like a Hawaiian guitar?

If a CD of Segovia playing "Stairway to Heaven" sounds like a cool idea to you, then you'll probably love this CD. If not, avoid it like the plague.

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