Wadi Al-Safi / Sabah Fakhri / Simon Shaheen & Qantara - Two Tenors And Qantara CD
For lovers of both classical Arabic vocal and instrumental music, this state of the art live CD is bound to set a new standard. A rare U.S. appearance of old guard Levantine vocal masters Wadi El Safi (for Anglo fans who've put up with shoddy tapes labelled in slang, aka Wadi Essafi) and Sabah Fakhri, along with young Galilean lion Simon Shaheen's cutting edge orchestra, Qantara, this deeply satisfying evening's worth of music was recorded in Las Vegas, of all places! But you wouldn't know that from either the classy and musically challenging repertoire.
Simon Shaheen's spiraling violin lines soar through orchestral interplay with his Qantara (Arabic for Arc or Archway) ensemble on his dazzling composition "Dance Mediterrania." You may have heard a fiddler on a roof, but the exhiliration rises considerably when you've got a precise fiddler spinning ecstatically upon an undulating arch, Shaheen's composition, "Al Qantara/The Arch," in both instrumentation and recapitulation of theme, bridges the near eastern and western harmonic spheres. This aural transmigration is aided by Jamey Haddad's complex percussion, and Arturo Martinez's Andalusian guitar work, that is so well complemented by Shaheen's own oud and violin parts, and Saba's beguiling airs.
Wadi El Safi is known as the Voice of Lebanon, and his presence adds warmth, wit, and sly romantic elements to the evening. He grew up in a small Lebanese mountain village, and brought a wealth of Lebnani folk tradition to the big city of Beirut, where his more formal musical skills developed. El Safi has a kind of charisma that I don't think most Americans associate with Arab culture. It is gentle, laid back, and funny in a deadpan country (think Andy Griffith) sort of way. When he sings "Ya Hilwa/Oh Pretty Girl" you can just about hear him winking through the speakers. His own song, now considered a standard folk tune "Jannaat/Gardens" is a lovely stroll through Lebanon's more enchanted regions. El Safi acknowledges the devastating toll of civil war and social chaos in his good-humoured redemptive ballad "Ya Ghayibeen/Oh You Are Away," and in the moving poem/song by Zaki Nassiph, "Taalu Habaabna/Our Beloved Are Back." He opens his set with the widely popular staple of his repertoire, "Lebnan/Lebanon."
Sabah Fakhri is more than a virtuosic tenor. He is a living repository of the wealth of musical traditions associated with Haleb, or Aleppo, the ancient northern Syrian fortress city. To get an idea of Fakhri's chops, as you are getting blown away by the contoured vocal gusts blowing through your speakers, bear in mind that the Syrian vocal master actually holds the Guiness World Record for non-stop and in perfect pitch singing, clocking in at over 13 consecutive hours. He doesn't have that kind of running time to play with on this CD, but we get an excellent cross-section of his vast and wide-ranging repertoire from muwasheshah (Andalusian or Umayyid religious and/or sensual poetry set to song) to mawwal (improvisational verbal sparring over divine and mortal attributes) to qadd, a style unique to Syria and heard here in the charming "Al Rosana." I would have liked to hear Fakhri draw some on the Mevlevi Sufi tradition for which he is known as an acknowledged musicological researcher and scholar.
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