WINDS FROM ASIA
Al-Ahram Weekly
May 14 2010
Egypt
The weather may be hot, but the Spring Festival brings a breath
of fresh air that makes the heat a little more bearable, reports
Rania Khallaf
The Spring Festival held by the Mawred Culture Resource Centre
opened last week at the Prince Taz Palace. This year the festival
is co-sponsored by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and many of
the performances are taking place at the Prince Taz Palace and the
Samaakhana; two of the most beautiful houses in Islamic Cairo. The
festival’s various events are taking place simultaneously from 6 to
26 May in three Arab cities: Cairo, Alexandria and Beirut.
This year for the first time the events include plastic arts
installations, documentary films, plays and music concerts.
The opening ceremony, which was held last Thursday, hosted a concert
by Nodira Primatov and musicians from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Nodira Primatova is one of the best-known performers of traditional
classical music in Uzbekistan, which lies at the centre of Central
Asia. Primatova studied both traditional music and opera in the
rigorous conservatory-style educational system that developed in
Central Asia during the Soviet era to merge Eastern and Western
musical approaches.
Accompanying herself on the dutar, Nodira brings exquisite vocal
control and intensity to her performance of classical songs. In the
inaugural concert, Pirmatova sang energetic examples of katta ashula,
a traditionally a cappella vocal genre closely identified with Ferghana
Valley in the east of Uzbekistan. Once performed at Sufi gatherings,
katta ashula has in more recent times become popular in a secular
context at outdoor festive gatherings.
The musical world of Central Asia comprises a vast repertoire of songs
and instrumental pieces that encompass the entire spectrum of civic
life, from devotion and prayer to festivities and celebrations. Thanks
to the Mawred, we have the opportunity to learn and enjoy Asian music,
which is for the most part completely foreign to our ears.
Born into a musical family, Abbos Kasimov, a musician from Uzbekistan,
is a professional percussionist who plays on the doyra, a traditional
and popular type of a drum in Kazakhstan. Kasimov graduated from the
College of Culture and Music, where he studied with Mamurjon Vahabov,
at Tashkent State Institute of Culture, to become a university
professor in one of the most prestigious universities in his country.
In 2005 he moved to the United States where he currently lives in
California. During his time in the US he played with famous groups
and singers including Stevie Wonder, Adam Rodolf and Zakir Hussein
from India, and Salah Nader from Afghanistan.
Kasimov believes there are some common features in Ozbek and Arab
music, "especially because 80 per cent of his people are Muslim, and
Arab music is very popular there," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Kasimov
is producing a DVD on the doyra with Octagonal Madness, an online
radio channel.
Serajjeddin Djhuraev from Tajikistan who plays the tambour, a
traditional instrument, was among those musicians who performed at
the inaugural concert. He graduated from the Institute of Traditional
Music before studying art at the Academy of Makamat.
"There is so much resemblance between our music and Arab music
because of these makams." Djhuraev told the Weekly on the eve of
the first show. "I believe that the rhythms are almost the same. The
main oriental sound is the tambour. I admire Arab music very much,
and I am so thrilled to be a part of this festival."
Djhuraev is a member of a group affiliated to the States called Sheesh
Makam. "We present concerts everywhere in my country and we have
presented a number of concerts in India, Iran, and Europe. We celebrate
the day of sheesh makam and Al-Falak on 12 May with folk music."
At the opening ceremony, Afghan rubab virtuoso Homayun Sakhi teamed
up with percussionists Salar Nader on tabla and Abbos Kosimov on
doyra — the Central Asian frame drum — for a performance devoted
to the traditional Kabuli style of the Indian raga performance of
which Sakhi is arguably the greatest living exponent.
The metaphor of this unprecedented music as language is nowhere
clearer than in the discursive "question and answer" (sawol-jawop)
played out between drums and melody instrument that is a hallmark of
the North Indian, and also Kabuli, classical performance tradition.
Throughout the performance, Nader and Kosimov rendered "answers"
to Sakhi’s "questions" by transferring the rhythmic patterns of his
rubab to their individual drums.
Sakhi is a musician from Afghanistan who currently lives in the US. He
lived in Pakistan for some years before immigrating to the US in 2001.
"Thank God, my music is very popular nowadays in the States," he says.
He has played with several famous musicians, and has so far produced
three albums.
Sakhi believes that global music does no harm to local music. "On the
contrary, when I played only Afghani music I got more of an audience.
People in the US prefer listening to new, traditional, and slightly
eccentric music like ours. I believe that mixing different styles of
international music is good enough.
"This is the first time I have visited the Middle East," he told the
Weekly. "And I am very enthusiastic about this experience, and wish
to come again next time."
"Tomorrow" is a sub-activity running for the first time this year
at Rawabet theatre. The Tomorrow programme presents performances
by young Arab people who gained financial support from the Mawred
to produce their artistic works. In the framework of this programme,
two short plays were presented: Sqeeck by Kholoud Nasser from Lebanon,
and Haki yegor bateekh or a Narration that yields watermelon by Roaa
Bazeih, who is also from Lebanon. A number of plastic art exhibitions
were opened, including The First Bra by Diala Khasaona from Jordan;
and scenes of light and darkness by Yazan El-Khalyli from Palestine.
The production-support programme was launched in 2004 with the aim of
supporting creative artistic projects among Arab young artists and
writers. Basma El-Husseini, manager of the Mawred, says the number
of scholarships has increased from six in 2004 to 14 in 2010. "The
Tomorrow programme aims at celebrating the creative and distinguished
projects by young Arab artists, and providing them an excellent
platform where they meet critics and audience alike," she added.
On Friday 14 May the Genena Theatre at Al-Azhar Park will host
the master of arts and one of the pioneers of the Lebanese modern
theatrical movement: Roget Assaf’s City of Mirrors. The play is based
on works of the late painter Paul Giragosian, a Lebanese-Armenian
artist who died in 1993, and on documents on the city of Jerusalem
before 1948. My advice is: if you have already missed some of the
festival’s events, make sure not to miss this unique theatrical
performance.