Baligh Hamdi

[Jane]

I've been jamming out to Balig Hamdi's song Achark lately. What's up with the sitar sounding thing? Anyone know the year this song came out? Thanks in advance

 

[Aniseteph]

Is it from this album?

If so, there's a review futher down that page that explains the Indian influences. I've no idea if it was written for this or if there's a straight ME version out there, or if it's a different song renamed.

 

[Jane]

Yep, that's it. I was curious about the indian influence and if he wrote it that way. It sounds a little hippy-ish to me- maybe recorded during the late sixties early seventies? I could be totally off base with that assumption. I really love this whole album!

 

[Daimona]

It is the same as this album (Indo-Arabic Variations Belly Dance) from 1994 under the label of Playa Sound, but was previously produced in 1989 (P Sunset-France) and 1980 (C Club du Disque Arabe).

From the booklet it says:

INDO-ARABIC VARIATIONS is the result of the collaboration between BALIGH HAMDI and MAGIC KHAN. When the Indian sitar player came in Cairo, Baligh Hamdi imagined to orchestrate some of his titles in order to give an important part to Magid Khan as a soloist as well as conductiong Abdelhalim Hafez's Egyptian musicians.

(and then there is a long part about Baligh Hamdi, which is too long to write here)

IMHO, "belly dance" is a mislabelling, but at least it led to some people buying it (when I was baby dancer, there wasn't many titles available in my hometown, and I think I nearly bought everything labelled "belly dance", including this album).

 

[Pleasant dancer]

I, too, have this album, bought a long time ago. Nice to listen too. Not great for dancing. But you live and learn.

 

[Jane]

Oh I dunno, I can see it being danceable for American Oriental style.

Baligh Hamdi wrote a lot of music that wasn't originally intended for belly dance. When it it gets rearranged for dancers it's lovely stuff to work with- nice and meaty. I'm a total fan