Comments on: A Look at Three Different Classical Egyptian CDs http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2010/03/14/taaj-3-classical-egyptian-cds/ Belly Dance News & Events Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:52:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: The Art of Listening | Belly Dance News & Events - Gilded Serpent http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2010/03/14/taaj-3-classical-egyptian-cds/comment-page-1/#comment-996 The Art of Listening | Belly Dance News & Events - Gilded Serpent Mon, 17 May 2010 20:13:03 +0000 http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/?p=1298#comment-996 [...] A Look at Three Different Classical Egyptian CDs: Leila’s "Om Al Dunya", Samy Farag’s ...", reviewed by Taaj Classical Egyptian music and dance style have been around for decades. [...] [...] A Look at Three Different Classical Egyptian CDs: Leila’s "Om Al Dunya", Samy Farag’s …", reviewed by Taaj Classical Egyptian music and dance style have been around for decades. [...]

]]> By: Nepenthe http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2010/03/14/taaj-3-classical-egyptian-cds/comment-page-1/#comment-860 Nepenthe Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:54:19 +0000 http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/?p=1298#comment-860 Yasmin, I wish I had read your response earlier. I  actually bought the Samy Farag CD  because it was described so beautifully, and I was very disappointed.  In fact, it was probably one of the worst bellydance music purchases I have ever made - all synthesized and very strange indeed - very Western sounding, even with English vocals.  I like some of his other releases so I have no idea what was going on here. Yasmin, I wish I had read your response earlier. I  actually bought the Samy Farag CD  because it was described so beautifully, and I was very disappointed.  In fact, it was probably one of the worst bellydance music purchases I have ever made – all synthesized and very strange indeed – very Western sounding, even with English vocals.  I like some of his other releases so I have no idea what was going on here.

]]> By: Magicians of Music | Belly Dance News & Events - Gilded Serpent http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2010/03/14/taaj-3-classical-egyptian-cds/comment-page-1/#comment-843 Magicians of Music | Belly Dance News & Events - Gilded Serpent Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:11:54 +0000 http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/?p=1298#comment-843 [...] A Look at Three Different Classical Egyptian CDs: Leila’s "Om Al Dunya", Samy Farag’s ...", reviewed by Taaj Classical Egyptian music and dance style have been around for decades. [...] [...] A Look at Three Different Classical Egyptian CDs: Leila’s "Om Al Dunya", Samy Farag’s …", reviewed by Taaj Classical Egyptian music and dance style have been around for decades. [...]

]]> By: Yasmin Henkesh http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/2010/03/14/taaj-3-classical-egyptian-cds/comment-page-1/#comment-838 Yasmin Henkesh Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:00:22 +0000 http://www.gildedserpent.com/cms/?p=1298#comment-838 As a distributor for Leila's Om al-Dunya I would like to reply to this review. It seems to me this reviewer is not familiar with Classical Egyptian music. Otherwise she would have seen the merit and heard the beauty of the 2 CDs she did not like and understood that the techno synthesized nature of Braham's Hungarian ballet is not worthy of comparison to Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda, Sabah, Ahmed Adaweya, Sami Ali or Wadiya Safi. The reviewer also did not understand that the intro to the mergenci is just that, an intro. No one is on stage at the moment. The music is only to whet the audience's appetite. This mergenci, by the way, belongs to Aizza Sharif. I saw her perform to it in the 1980s. I have video of her doing it. The Sami Ali song was Sahar Hamdi's signature piece. How can a purist NOT like these songs? The older, third album reviewed, A Gift from Cairo, is a release by Hollywood Music - that is considered a classic for Egyptian dancers. It was recorded over 28 years ago in Cairo with a 20+ piece band. It is organized in set format, as is Om al-Dunya, not in random tracks. Samy Farag has produced some very good albums out of his Los Angeles studio, but this one - in my opinion - is NOT his best. In the end it is up to the listener to make up their own minds. I am glad there was a link to a YouTube clip of Leila dancing to the music, so readers can hear it and decide for themselves. As a distributor for Leila’s Om al-Dunya I would like to reply to this review. It seems to me this reviewer is not familiar with Classical Egyptian music. Otherwise she would have seen the merit and heard the beauty of the 2 CDs she did not like and understood that the techno synthesized nature of Braham’s Hungarian ballet is not worthy of comparison to Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda, Sabah, Ahmed Adaweya, Sami Ali or Wadiya Safi.

The reviewer also did not understand that the intro to the mergenci is just that, an intro. No one is on stage at the moment. The music is only to whet the audience’s appetite. This mergenci, by the way, belongs to Aizza Sharif. I saw her perform to it in the 1980s. I have video of her doing it. The Sami Ali song was Sahar Hamdi’s signature piece. How can a purist NOT like these songs?

The older, third album reviewed, A Gift from Cairo, is a release by Hollywood Music – that is considered a classic for Egyptian dancers. It was recorded over 28 years ago in Cairo with a 20+ piece band. It is organized in set format, as is Om al-Dunya, not in random tracks. Samy Farag has produced some very good albums out of his Los Angeles studio, but this one – in my opinion – is NOT his best.

In the end it is up to the listener to make up their own minds. I am glad there was a link to a YouTube clip of Leila dancing to the music, so readers can hear it and decide for themselves.

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