Thread: Claude Chaloub...

...rocking Alf Leyla on the violin!

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/379581...n_egypt_music/

Betcha can't sit still!

I've never heard of him before, and he doesn't have a website. Is his music available online?

Is he a member of the group REG project? I think he might be?

Maybe not...? This rocks though!!!

Great music, but aarrgghhh!!!! the camera work!

Chapter 1 of Arabs' "how to video tape an entertainment event"

1. Move the camera around frequently, at least once per half second. If you are not moving the camera, you are not doing your job.

2. If the main subject of the video is a dancer, pan back and forth between her and the musicians. Make sure the speed at which you do so is slightly faster than the speed at which the human eye can focus. Whatever you do, make sure you never get a full body shot of her completing an entire movement.

3. If the main subject of the video is a musician, pan back and forth between him/her and random hot chic in the audience dancing. Make sure you never stay focused on the musician long enough to see him/her play/sing an entire phrase of music.

4. In all cases, pan frequently to the audience. There are probably famous people there. The more faces of famous people you catch on film, the better videographer you are.

5. The more special effects you can work in, the better a cameraman you are. The pinnacle of camera work would be if you could zoom in on a dancer's crotch while shooting the camera through the bottom of a tabla with a clear head, and then superimposing the whole scene over a patch of half-dead geraniums.

My vote for worst video effect ever - in Nadia Gamal the Legend, they superimpose a tiny Nadia over herself, so it looks like she has her own head up her...belt.

*off to listen to violin music now*

Originally Posted by ssipes

Great music, but aarrgghhh!!!! the camera work!

5. The more special effects you can work in, the better a cameraman you are. The pinnacle of camera work would be if you could zoom in on a dancer's crotch while shooting the camera through the bottom of a tabla with a clear head, and then superimposing the whole scene over a patch of half-dead geraniums.

no, superimpose the whole scene on kaleidescoped whirling multiple images of the half-dead geraniums!

I have one Nagwa Fouad clip that actually makes me nauseous to watch, the one where she's dancing on the head of the doumbek which is also a table between a couple out at a club ..c::

For some reason the video is not playing when I go to the page ( :o( ) but you should check out Claude's version of Gnossienne- it is incredibly beautiful. He's Lebanese, and I know at least one of his CD's is available on Amazon... I gotta order it myself...

Originally Posted by Lauren_

My vote for worst video effect ever - in Nadia Gamal the Legend, they superimpose a tiny Nadia over herself, so it looks like she has her own head up her...belt.

*off to listen to violin music now*

Sohair Sweet Star of Cairo gives Nadia the legend a run for her money. Not only is Sohair's dancing bad and her costume looks like a harlequin factory exploded, but the vid editor cropped the screen and encircled it with geraniums going to seed.

Although now that I think about it, Nadia the legend is the one featuring the "tabla-cam" shot through the bottom of Setrak Sarkissian's drum while he's playing it.

But the tabla cam is so ubiquitous now it doesn't even get a special mention.

Putting a dancer up her own assel is a true feat of videography.

You're right about Sweet Star of Cairo, though, poor Soheir looks like the original goth in that one, dancing in a funeral wreath. Apparently some copies of the video only had the flowers part of the time, but I wasn't lucky enough to get one of those.

Worst.Video.Ever. Made me not like Suheir Zaki's dancing and I can't seem to shake that impression.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

But the tabla cam is so ubiquitous now it doesn't even get a special mention.

Putting a dancer up her own assel is a true feat of videography.

You're right about Sweet Star of Cairo, though, poor Soheir looks like the original goth in that one, dancing in a funeral wreath. Apparently some copies of the video only had the flowers part of the time, but I wasn't lucky enough to get one of those.

That kind of annoyed me - don't like although he's a kick ass violinist.

That girl dancing over there in the red pants - please stop.

Wow. WOW. I need to buy this CD. Even though the camera work was AWFUL the music more than made up for it. Wow.

For what it's worth, that isn't lousy camera work (in the video in the first post), it's lousy editing. Somebody needs to take away the editor's coffee and make him lie down in a quiet place for a while.

Originally Posted by Elviza Isis

For some reason the video is not playing when I go to the page ( :o( ) but you should check out Claude's version of Gnossienne- it is incredibly beautiful. He's Lebanese, and I know at least one of his CD's is available on Amazon... I gotta order it myself...

Gnossienne- Oh yes...yes yes! Whenever I have danced to it people come up and ask me what that music is...everytime! Rich, hopeful and sad..it brings out as much emotion (in me) as the best Om.....and every time I dance to it...a new story manifests itself. And I tend to be a music slut....never the same song twice.

I love when these coincidences happen....I just pulled out the Claude Chaloub CD I have a couple days ago to play for a friend so he could here one of the best violinist I think I have ever heard...as far as playing with soul. And it made we wonder if he had released anything since I got this cd and started a search online. When I got it back in 2002, I was listening to it all the time.
Well it looks like he hasn't come out with anything since At least for the US market. Anyways, I left it sitting by my keyboard as a reminder and here I find this post on Bhuz. Cool!

If anyone finds other recordings, like this Alf Leyla, please tell me!!! ,r:;

By the way, the one cd of his available that does have Gnossienne is not all arabic sounding. It is more East meets West fusion (West being Classical music) and the one track is the only more Middle Eastern sounding. Shouldn't stop you from buying it thought if you want to hear some very moving music. We used it for some Modern dance pieces at my studio.

Thanks for the listen!