Fairuz.. The real thing?

Fairouz is a great singer, with a great voice, but the sensibility behind a lot of the work she has recorded can be a bit too shlocky for me. Also, I really think the full recordings of the musicals, with all the theatrical goings on, are best left to an Arab-speaking audience. I do love some of her work a lot though.

x-post. You're welcome. What have you heard so far?

V

"Poeme D'amore" had some fine moments. The "this has GOT to be the one" high hopes I had for "Bi Layl We chiti" faded 5 minutes into it. Not surprisingly I do think the cheese factor works well with the "Good Friday/Eastern Sacred" songs release. Is she Coptic Christian?

Vg

I think "light classical" is pretty unavoidable in this case, and in the case of most popular Arabic music before the 80s. (After that, you get a lot of programmed beats that get pretty tedious to my ears, in this case.)

If you are looking for something more purely traditional, you might want to try the Syrian reportoire that Sabah Fakhry and Shadi Jamil perform.

By the way, anyone heard Asalah's "A Night At The Opera" release? I think this is one of the best Arabic releases by a popular singer in a long time.

Vg

I haven't even heard of Aslah, but will investigate.

I wonder about her "A Night At The Opera" release because when I first heard it I thought "this is the BEST simulation of classic Arabic singing & Orch. ever! Who is this artist?

Then I find this on Albawaba.com which is very curious. I don't know if this is refering to the ANATO release, but anywho...

"Prominent Syrian singer Asalah Nasri is accused of copying singers from the gulf and trying to take their fans by singing in the Khaliji accent. Asalah revealed that she sings khaliji songs because the words express the sorrow she feels deep in her heart and that’s why she is fascinated with the gulf poets like Haza' Bin sultan, Prince Bader Bin Abdulmuhsen, and many others...."

I guess if you long for a young singer singing in the "old style" her ANAT0 cd will be a nice surprise no matter what.

Vg

For those who don't know, traditional Syrian music doesn't sound too much like the Khaliji style that exists in the Gulf states.

A lot of the new pop/ular music from the Gulf seems to be (inevitably) imitating Egyptian new sound, so I guess it's good that a Syrian is working in the traditional Khaliji style. (I actually know a lot less about Khaliji music than I would like, and am not even sure of its exact genre boundaries, if they are exact.)

On a related note, this The Sawt in Kuwait, is nice: http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=2S00GHZBWd&EAN=794881742523&ITM=1

The vocals seem more folkloric than classically oriented though, at least to my ears.

I remember looking at this. Ironically, the first two songs (and the last two as well for all I know) were originally done by Oum Kalthoum. So this is a Syrian singing Egyptian songs in a Khaliji style, or at least accent? Somewhat curious.

http://www.maqam.com/cgi-bin/cdtest.cgi?category1=Asala

Compare:

http://www.queenofpeace.ca/_derived/Oscar.htm_txt_Francis_Schaefer.gif

bio by : mostgreat_asalahnasri

--http://www.3arabiaphoto.com/singers/asalah.html

Mayada became furious and attacked Asalah saying she has no respect for anyone and in turn does not deserve to be respected. Asalah tried to explain to Mayada that she did not mean what she said in the manner it was interpreted, but Mayada refused to accept any excuse from her. Mayadah also refused to accept Asalah’s apology saying that she does not deserve to be forgiven after her rude comments. –Albawaba.com

http://www.albawaba.com/en/entertainment,panorama/177830

I don't remember having one.

Asala has really big hair

But Warda has even bigger hair.

Al_Sucar,

Thats amazing about her covering Om on that release. I had no idea. But I'm not surprised as it's quite good. Indeed a curious release worth checking out.

I guess I'm wondering if Asala in pure classical form is nothing more than a very well studied imitation, which I guess is not such a bad thing. I hope it's more than that. But she does deliver the goods. Her voice is very convincing.
Alas, I have no way of grasping the Khaliji accent at this point.

Oh the diva drama!

VG

Neither do I.

Those Oum Kalthoum songs she covers are very frequently covered by other singers, actually. Mahmoud Fadl did an album of Oum Kalthoum covers (with a Sudanese singer) and it has those two songs. The Syrian pop star George Wassouf has also recorded them (though he's not a classically trained singer).

http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0NV0K13LBPD212GD8IJASZ6BC8

(I hope that's the right link. If it's a man singing, it's not.)

Since then I have bought two other Fairuz CDs. One of them was in the Arabian Masters series, and it was the suck, but it did teach me something valuable - shun all Fairuz albums primarily written by her idiot son Ziad Rahbani, unless you like softy jazz. Instead, focus on Fairuz records where teh arrangements and compositions are by the Rahbani Brothers (Mr Fairuz and Mr Fairuz's brother).

Why didn't you like this one? I don't like it that much myself, but to the extent that I dislike it, I don't dislike it for the same reason I dislike her really shlocky stuff. I think this is actually some of the more traditional (=classical?) work I've heard by her. There's just something about lifeless about it, for some reason, but when I focus in on, say, the oud playing, or the doumbek, it all sounds good. Even the violins don't strike me as particularly annoying. But I definitely don't see how it's any more "light classical" than 99% of her work, or late Oum Kalthoum, for that matter.