Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
I can’t remember when and how exactly I met Hubl Greiner, a German musician, composer and brain of the experimental-dada-world fusion band The Blech. But what I remember, is that when I met him for the first time I lived in Tokyo. I was a musician myself and earned my living teaching English and German and writing as a freelance music journalist for Japanese music journals.
Date: June 27, 2010
Venue: Issue Project Room (NY, Brooklyn)
Syria‘s Omar Souleyman is a musician who began his career in 1994. He has been working with a number of musicians with whom he still performs. Under his name they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live- recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. His music has reached a wider audience in recent years due to the American label Sublime Frequencies, from which he has been able to tour extensively and release three records. DBDBD is going to write about this musician in the near future.
Salif Keita‘s voice is one other mortals can only aspire to. A searing tenor that somehow sounds gritty and glorious all at once, it’s a complicated instrument that transcends language barriers, and with its subtle shadings offers solace and succor, joy and even redemption. It’s not for nothing that Keita is known as the golden voice of Mali.
Given Salif Keita’s incredible talent, it was inevitable that one day music would take him back to his homeland, despite the hardships he once faced there. Recently, that inevitability came to pass. With a 35-year career behind him, Keita returned home to record his latest release, M’Bemba, in Bamako in the studio “Moffou” he had built by the River Niger.
Mohamed Badawi is a doctor of linguistics and founder, composer, and singer of the groups Diwan and El Nour. The oud, or Middle-East lute, plays a central role in his musical renditions. In addition to the oud, he also plays a Sudanese variation of the Bongos, which consists of three drums.
This is a promo-Video of Mohamed Badawi’s CD “Nosybe”. He is a Sudanese vocalist and oud player. The members are Roman Bunka (Guitar, Oud), Mohamed Abdelwahab Kununu (Accordeon), Shirley Anne Hofmann (Tuba, Trombone, Trumpet, Euphonium), Hatim Mileegi (Percussion), Daniel Sphani (Drums), Norbert Dömling (Bass), Mohamed Atif Abdel Hamid (Nay), Amro Sawwaf (Qanun), Tahir Mahmoud (Geige), Amro Subhi (Cello), Iman Aliy Ad-din (Chor, Kairo), Marwa Hasan (Chor, Kairo), Wala Mohamed (Chor, Kairo), Iman Mohamed Wadi (Chor, Kairo) Iglal Hashim (Chor, Sudan) Safa Osman (Chor, Sudan) Magdi Shaban Sukkar (Tablah, Bandir), Video by Oliver Wuerffell 2008, Produced by Hubl Greiner 2007.