The Heavy Hitting Maqam of Saba

The work of a free-lance writer has its interesting moments. These days I am a short order cook with a dozen dishes cooking, some just being dreamed up, some being garnished and sent off to the table. I'm grateful for all projects in the pipeline, as well as other unusual opportunities that have come my way.

Yesterday I had the honor to be part of a panel at Berklee College of Music, talking about emotional expression in Arab music. I was asked by Simon Shaheen, who recently joined the faculty there. Also on the panel was Robert Browning, the founder of the World Music Institute , accompanied by his lovely wife Helene, as well as qanun maestro Jamal Sinno and the excellent percussionist Tareq Rantisi, a recent Berklee grad. Simon asked me to join the panel in large part because there was no budget to bring anyone from out of town. I am glad for the opportunity. I focused on the heavy emotional content of the maqam called Saba. I really enjoyed the chance to sit back and think about this particular maqam, and how one has to handle it. Then, Simon, Jamal and Tareq played a section of Simon's composition Arboresque that is all in Saba. Robert Browning spoke about his perspective on Tarab, musical ecstasy, in Middle Eastern music, based on his decades of presenting this music in New York City. The audience were Berklee faculty members, and this in itself was fantastic, for they all have incredible musical hearing abilities, and they all 'got' the theoretical aspects of what we were saying. What an audience!

You can read more about Saba and listen to samples of it at: maqamworld.com - page on saba  I am thinking about writing a short piece on Saba ----- based on what we discussed and discovered. The emotional effect of the various maqamat is a subject of discussion among scholars, but from my own experience as a 20 some year student of the oud, musicians themselves don't TALK about the emotion of it, they just play it and experience it.

Desert Angel

Last year I came across a video taken in the Jordanian desert (link to it here), that featured bedouin musicians playing music round a campfire at night. I was quite intrigued by this video and others like it posted by 'TillyTuck' on YouTube and decided to find out about her.

Tilly's real name is Liz, but she also goes by her Arabic name, Malak, which means 'Angel'. Liz works at the BBC in London as a Director's Assistant. She also studied Arabic in Jordan and Sana'a, Yemen. A native Californian, born to British and American parents, Liz has been living in the UK since 2002, with many trips to the Middle East of course.

Q - What drew you to the desert?
A - I have had a passion and fascination for the Middle East since I was a kid (thanks to Indiana Jones, 1001Arabian Nights stories such as Ali Baba and to my dad's huge Arabic bedouin tapestry that he had on the wall of our living room). My love and fascination deepened in 1994, that was when I first traveled to the Middle East. From that point on, I knew that I wanted more than just a one off holiday, I had to go back one day to live, learn the language fully immerse myself in this ancient society."

Q - How did you get to the desert and make those amazing videos?

A - In 2007 I studied Arabic at the University of  Jordan's Language Center. During this time, I traveled to the desert quite a lot and became close friends with several bedouin families in Wadi Rum, Petra  (Wadi Mousa) and Al-Al-Humayma.  Poetry and songs are a huge part of bedouin culture. I fell in love with the depth and fire that are in these people's hearts and souls. My friends felt my genuine love for their people and culture. They are very observant and notice when somebody genuinely is interested in them. They knew that I loved gatherings of poetry and song around the fire in the desert, so every time I visited the area, they welcomed me to their homes, made me feel part of the family, and made sure to bring their musical instruments where they could pour out their hearts and express themselves.  It was a huge privilege that most westerners never get the chance to experience."

 Q - What's your favorite desert memory?
A-  "Sitting under the stars with the bedu in the middle of nowhere, next to the fire, listening to the oud, drinking maramiya, (sage tea), then falling asleep watching the shooting stars, just to wake up with the burning sun on my face."

Q - What would be your ultimate desert adventure?
A - I would like to explore the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) in the Arabian Peninsula and visit the places mentioned in Wilfred Thesiger's book Arabian Sands.

Thank you, Liz, for sharing you story, your videos, and your passion for the desert and the bedouin. May you have many wonderful desert adventures!

Kareem Roustom in the Tufts Journal

My profile of Kareem Roustom came out in the Tufts Journal today. Link to the story here.

Kareem is a rising star - a multi-talented composer and musician who works in many musical genres. He composes everything from pop-star arrangements to classical concert music, film scores and choral works. He also does arrangements of classical and folkloric Arab music and leads the Tufts University Arabic Music Ensemble. He graciously let me sit in on oud with the group this past winter semester - and it was a pleasure to see him in action. We had our recital last Sunday. We shared the stage with the Tufts Klezmer Ensemble, which was a hoot since we had to fit into the right half of the stage, pie wedge style! We loved the pieces we learned from Beth Bahia Cohen who subbed for Kareem in a couple of sessions. She taught us several songs by ear in the old Middle Eastern tradition. We really sounded fine on those songs, since we'd internalized them so directly. It feels good to have this story picked up and out in the world. Kareem has some incredible projects coming down the pike...the film score for Mosque in Morgantown, and Amreeka. Check him out on his MySpace page.

Note: Photo by Alonso Nichols