10 June 2011

BEIRUT: Hybridity may be the most overused word in discussions of Beirut culture. Foreigners who write about Lebanese art, for instance, are hot-wired to find mixtures of east and west everywhere they look.

So it was refreshing to sneak past the bouncers posted in front of AUBs Assembly Hall Wednesday evening and find another, completely unexpected species of hybridity.

A Tribute to Sabah assembled 12 tunes the Lebanese vocalist Sabah performed in some of the Egyptian films she made the 1950s and 60s. Performed as the closing event of the Beirut Spring Festival, the program was devised, and first tested, at the Dubai International Film Festival late last year as part of a tribute to Sabahs films.

It was a nostalgic program but as was evidenced by the reception of the overwhelmingly Lebanese audience it was also an immensely popular one.

The music was performed by a medium-sized eastern classical ensemble four violins, percussion (frame drums and darbuka), nai, oud and contrabass and a mixed six-voice backing chorus. To the foreign ear this Oriental Ensemble, as the program termed it, comported itself unerringly.

Standing at the center of this phalanx of talent was Lebanese vocalist Rima Khcheich. Her presence wasnt a surprise. The show was well advertised and, it seems, eagerly anticipated.

Yet, for those who have followed Khcheichs career trajectory over the last few years, the concert was a surprising departure from her oeuvre.

Khcheichs vocal technique is that of the eastern classical tradition albeit one marked by a timbre and precision so fine that it beggars description yet for nearly a decade her work has not been classical.

The basic character of her work blends classical vocal technique with jazz instrumentation, arrangement and temperament. She and her collaborators whether the assortment of Beirut-area jazz players she worked with on her record Yalalalli or the Dutch session musicians clustered around contrabassist Tony Overwater on Falak mingle the work of giants in the Arab classical tradition (Abdul Majid, Shaykh Sayyed Darwish) with that of contemporary composers (Issam Hajj Ali and Rabih Mroueh).

The main distinction between Eastern classical and Western jazz (other than the obvious difference of instrumentation) is the relationship between the players and the vocalist. Where the classical ensembles literally accompany the vocalist providing the pitch, rhythm and so forth jazz musicians, as Khcheich has remarked, work in parallel with each other and the vocalist, but separately.

I wasnt trying to be Sabah in this concert, Khcheich remarked after the show. Her songs made me be in a certain condition but I didnt try to imitate her or be her.

It was this post-classical reanimation of these pop tunes that made the show a genuine hybrid.

One thing that made Tribute unlike Khcheichs recent concerts was the audience response. The quality of her voice and her collaborators means that, no matter how obscure the canon shes exploring, her concerts are consistently absorbing. It isnt unusual to hear male audience members of a certain age uttering moans of pleasure with a particularly well-sustained or adorned grace note.

For most of the people in her AUB audience, however, the Sabah tunes were not only recognized but known. As she progressed through her play list, her spectators felt compelled to join in clapping in time and singing along. At one point, a well-known professional dancer leapt to the stage and after securing Khcheichs nod of assent tied a scarf around his hips (belly dance-style) and improvised an accompaniment.

The range of audience responses to the ad hoc dance routine was amusing, given that, by the end, the concert had dissolved into a sing-along.

In its instrumentation, form and audience response, Tribute to Sabah looks very much like a return to the classical form. Khcheich demurs, saying this show is less a departure than a detour.

Yes its very different from what I do, Khcheich admitted after the show, because ordinarily I present only one song from Sabah songs that are quiet and sad. Ive never had this sort of reaction from the audience.

She says that it wasnt difficult to return to working with a classical ensemble but shes not interested in returning to the classical form she practiced before 2003.

I prefer what I do now, she smiled. I dont know how to go back to the classical approach, but the experience and theme was nice and I enjoyed the songs. If I could have done these songs the way I do my own repertoire, I would have done. But that takes much more time to rearrange the songs, for the musicians that I work with to learn the songs. Its not easy.

The vocalist said that returning to the Sabah program after nearly half a year was all the more strange since she had just come back into town after some concerts in Europe with Overwater, her most constant musical collaborator.

I just came back from a great concert in Munster with Tony. Its theme was art and religion so I had a program of five religious songs that Tony didnt know. He came from Holland one night before the concert we learned three new songs. So it was a really stressful concert but it was great. So much different from what we did here!

Now I have to stop again and close the Sabah file and open another file for my new CD, which Ill be recording at the end of this month.

The new record will unite Khcheich, Overwater and Dutch percussionist and clarinet-player with a program of old tunes, some whose melodies are so old their composer isnt known.

Its an old repertoire rearranged for jazz instruments but [the players] are more coming toward my music. Im not choosing music that can go with [their styles]. This time theyre coming to my music.

I dont know. Maybe some people at the Sabah concert said Why did she do this? I think some other people may have said, At last she finally did it! To those who said, Why? I say Its just a detour. For those who said Yes finally! I say Enjoy it. This may be the last time for another 10 years.

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.