Thread: Brass instruments in Arabic music

Can someone tell me how they got there?
My idea would be: wandering musicians - gypsies/Rom people.

I thought mizmar, daf or riq were the typical rural instruments, nay, oud, qanun required a better musical education and a knowledge of the classical repertoire....akkordion could be both... w.:

But clarinet and trombone? Sounds like from the Balcans.

lets not forget mustapha sax!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it comes from the time of British rule in Egypt. There was a man by the name of Hassaballah who got this started. There were Brits, so there were brass bands. He got Egyptians to be in the band and these types of bands are known as Hassaballa bands now.

I was recently listening to a CD, I think it might have been Walid Toufic and I heard trumpet! I loved it!

Like Alyssa said, historically there was definitely a military connection.

Semi-related: I have a record* by Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band. According to the liner notes, he started this band while he was director of the Military Music Department in Heliopolis (in the 1960s). It is a pretty interesting record, lots of trumpets, saxophones, trombones, and tubas (and drums and nay!). . The liner notes talk about jazz influencing Egyptian musicians, and vice versa. Apparently in the 60s there was a bit of a jazz scene in Egypt. I would love to hear more of this stuff (Salah Ragab even toured Egypt and Greece with Sun Ra!). I don't know if the Cairo Jazz Club is still around, it was in the early 2000s, though.

Back to topic a bit...my understanding is pulling the brass musicians from a military trained academy was not unusual, as that is where it crossed over in Egypt traditionally.

And of course, there is also general artistic license and fusion/experimentation in Egyptian music among musicians, as well.


*as in LP. I think it was also released on CD, not sure.

Hm, no connection at all with balcans?

Oh Jazz definitely influenced Arabic music. The Bigband thing, Rock'n Roll, the keyboard and synthesizer appearing.
And military, yes, in Brazil and Peru, the marches, they got that music nationalized into some sort of brass party music with latin flavour...

Strange for the way they play the brass it really reminded me of the gypsy brass bands of Yugoslavia/Serbia.

Does noone know the great great film "Underground" by Emir Kusturica from 1995? It is a fabulous film and it made the gypsy-brass-music and Goran Bregovic famous! Check it out on youtube, it's hilarious, one of the best comedies ever!

Originally Posted by alyssaraks

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it comes from the time of British rule in Egypt.

That is my understanding as well. Mahmoud Fadl has an album called The Drummers of the Nile in Town that recreates the sound of the brass bands he heard in Cairo as a child, so I don't know, maybe the 1950s or 60s? I know I've seen Egyptian movies from that era that feature brass bands in big outdoor wedding processions. So it was a "gift" of colonialism that was incorporated into Egyptian culture.

When it comes to the Balkan connection, I suspect that this is more likely to be the case for Turkey/Greece, but not so much for Egypt.

I would guess alyssaraks is probably correct and also the jazz influence.

As far as the brass elements in Balkan music is concerned, I heard that it came from Turkish military music, probably during the Turkish rule of the area.