Tabadoul Orchestra - World Wide Wahab

Founded in summer 2010 by members of the famous cologne worldmusic-collective Schäl Sick Brassband together with guests and the charismatic egyptian singer Dina Gouda , the tabadoul orchestra presents its first live-program and also their first CD: world wide wahab. this program is dedicated to the most important composer of the arabian world in the 20th century: Mohammed Abdel Wahab from egypt.

As the first ensemble ever in europe, tabadoul orchestra presents the adventurous compositions of Abdel Wahab in a feature-length concert
and on CD.


Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who died in 1990, was one of the most significant and innovative composers of the arabian world. He is regarded as the inventor of the arabian film-musical and also introduced western intruments like electric guitars, -pianos and -organs to the arabian music, thus developing a completely new style. furthermore, the use of latin-american dance rhythms like Beguine, Rumba or ChaCha in the context of the traditional egyptian string orchestra, his innovative way of orchestration and composition techniques as well as a life´s work of more than 1.000 compositions lifts Mohamed Abdel Wahab clearly out of the ranks of usual egyptian musicians. he had, like no other, the ability, to amalgamate the old arabic musical tradition with the new, the oriental with the western, what made him popular far beyond his own generation. Mohamed Abdel Wahab is considered, after Sayed Darwish, as the crucial pioneer and innovator of arabic art music. from a contemporary perspective he could even be described as an early Frank Zappa of arabian music...

Wahabs extremely eccentrical mixture of bellydance and bavaria, of egyptian folklore and thriller-soundtrack started to enthuse Raimund Kroboth and his fellow musicians already since long ago. but teaming up with the young, charismatic singer Dina Gouda, who grew up in Cairo, finally convinced everybody to launch this exciting new project. with further members like the chech wunderkind Jura Wajda, whose virtuoso mastery of the Cymbalon (...a hungarian gipsy dulcimer) reveals stunning parallels to Wahab´s use of the Qanun (...the egyptian zither) , but also with taraf-violinist Nina Leonards and the accordionist Martin Kübert, the tabadoul orchestra once more expands its sound spectrum and conveys the music of Abdel Wahab, who still is widely unknown in europe, with delight and fascination to the 21st century.


dina gouda : vocals
raimund kroboth : guitar/arrangement
annette maye : clarinet/bass-clarinet
nina leonards : violin
martin kübert : accordion/harmonium
jura wajda : cymbalon
udo moll : trumpet
matti muche : trombone
joachim gellert : tuba
mirek pyschny : drums
fethi ak : percussion

tabadoul orchestra : FAKRAH from udo moll on Vimeo.