Epic poetry wrapped up in the rabab viol (a coconut shell covered with fish skin, with a long, spiked handle, two horsehair strings), the vertical suffara flute, the arghul double clarinet, droning and melodious.

Intense Moroccan singer improvisatorially lighting up the rare, refined nineteenth century wasla style, in suite form, with chamber orchestra — qanun zither, ud lute, kaman violin and riqq percussion.

The Arkestra toured Europe in early 1983; then made its way to Cairo. It played a number of concerts during April at Il Capo/Il Buco, before recording superb studio versions of the Ragab compositions Egypt Strut and Dawn, at El Nahar Studios in Heliopolis the following month, featuring Salah Ragab on congas.
For the original release of this LP, the Greek label Praxis added Ramadan and Oriental Mood from the Cairo Jazz Orchestra album Egypt Strut; and another new CJO recording, A Farewell Theme, composed by Ragab upon the death of president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970.
This first ever official reissue features previously unseen photos and new liner notes by Hartmut Geerken and Paul Griffiths.

‘One of the most important Arabic composers of the twentieth century — writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, and many others — leading his own Diamond Orchestra, with Omar Khorshid on guitar, Magdi al-Husseini on organ, Samir Sourour on saxophone, and Faruq Salama on accordion. During this decade, Hamdi fully realized an international, hybrid music which incorporated beat-driven Eastern-tinged jazz, theremin-draped orchestral noir, Khorshid’s searing guitar solos, and a buzzing, sitar-based, Indo-Arabic psychedelic exotica… some of the hippest music of the era, anywhere.’

A heartfelt tribute to Sun Ra.
Trumpet, drums, and the great man’s favoured Rocksichord; and up-and-coming Cuban bassist Ledian Mola, who adds vocals inspired by Cuban folklore.
Another winner from 577.

‘Egypt’s ‘official’ popular music throughout much of the twentieth century was a complex form of art song steeped in tradition, well-loved by the middle and upper classes. The music business was highly structured and professional; centred in Cairo. However, far from the metropolis, to the north and northwest, in towns like Tanta and Alexandria and extending across the Saharan Desert to the Libyan border, a raw, hybrid shaabi/al-musiqa al-shabiya style of music was springing up, supported by small, upstart labels.
‘This compilation covers the full range of styles presented by the short-lived but fecund Bourini Records, launched in the late 1960s in Benghazi, Libya. Gobsmacking moments include Basis Rahouma’s transformation into a growling, barking man-lion, and Reem Kamal’s onwards-and-upwards hand-clapping party banger, with a grooving nihilistic dissonance reminiscent of the Velvet Underground. The thorough-going contrast with mainstream Egyptian popular music is stark in Ana Mish Hafwatak, its vocal woven deftly through a constant accordion drone, and the sparse, slow-burning lament Al Bint al Libya. Whereas the mainstream was aspirational, projecting Egyptian culture at its most refined, the performances captured by Bourini were authentic expressions of ordinary, everyday life. More than half a century old, this music has lost none of its urgency, presence, or relevance.’