26 March 2005

BEIRUT: For fans of Egyptian tarab music, the end of March each year is a time to reflect on the passing of two of the legends of tarab, Abdel Halim Hafez, and Mohammed Abdel Wahab. In Cairo, and other parts of the Arab world over the next few days, numerous concerts and tributes to the two singers are going on. On Sunday in Cairo's Al-Gumhouriya Theater, Egypt's National Music Ensemble conducted by Selim Sahab will play many of Hafez's most popular songs in tribute to the man who died almost 30 years ago on March 30.

A tribute to Abdel Wahab, who died aged 84 on March 31 in 1991 almost 15 years ago, will be performed by the Abdel-Halim Noweira Arabic Music Ensemble conducted by Salah Ghoubashi next Thursday at the Cairo Opera House.

Together these two men changed the face of Egyptian popular classical music forever and are unlikely to be forgotten. They became heroes for thousands of people in the Arab world and the strength of their legacy can be seen by the increasing number of admirers the pair gain every day among a new generation of Arab youth.

Of the two singers, Hafez's career was shorter - he died in London in 1977 aged just 48 from complications caused by bilharzia which he had caught as a child and had affected him since 1955. But as both an actor and singer Hafez was one of the most influential of the 1950s and 1960s, and when Abdel Wahab switched from singing to composing, Hafez became his successor.  

Born in 1929, in the village of Al-Hilwat in the province of Al-Sharkia, Hafez studied at Cairo's Institute of Arabic Music and the Higher Institute for Theater Music, and began his career teaching and playing oboe before singing and acting. His first hit came in 1951, and he soon signed a contract with Abdel Wahab to sing his songs and appear in his films. In the 1960s, he started to sing colloquial poetry more colorful and meaningful and nearer to popular folk song than ordinary pop songs.

Known as "Al-Andaleeb" or "the nightingale"" because of the subtlety and resonance of his voice, it is a mark of the power Hafez held over people that when he died in London, four Egyptian girls committed suicide so devastated were they by his death.

Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Hafez's mentor and colleague and fellow genius of tarab fell in love with music and theater as a child in Cairo and pursued it from the start. His oud playing and the deep intonation of his baritone voice changed the face of popular Egyptian music forever, and by the time of his death there was no doubt that his achievements had earned him the position of the founder of contemporary Arabic music.

Abdel Wahab was an innovator continuously working throughout his years as a composer to enrich and change traditional song. Thus he combined the oriental quarter tone melodies with Latin American rhythms of tango, samba and rumba for instance, and incorporated Western musical instruments into the famous big Arabic orchestras.

In his early years he acted but by the 1950s, he gave it up for singing and playing. When the 1960s came around he gave up singing too so passionate was he about progressing the music through composition. Abdel Wahab composed national anthems (Egypt, Oman) and one of his most famous compositions, the one which took his stardom in the Arab world to astronomic heights, was the song "Inta Omri," sung by his fellow singer and sometime rival Oum Kalthoum. It would become Egypt's all-time bestseller.

Today, Abdel Wahab continues to appear on television sets around the Arab world in his popular romantic early films and his songs - he composed over 1,800 - continue to be played everywhere from radio sets to taxi cabs drivers around the Arab world, and courses about him are taught at schools and universities.

If you happen to be in Cairo this weekend and all next week get down to the Opera House or the Al-Gumhouriya Theater for a couple of nostalgic and unmissable concerts.

The National Arabic Music Ensemble plays a tribute to Abdel Halim Hafez on Sunday at the Al-Gumhouriya in Cairo. Call +202 3907707.

The Abdel-Halim Noweira Arabic Music Ensemble plays a tribute to composer Mohammed Abdel-Wahab next Thursday at the Cairo Opera House. Call +202 7370601.