155: Egypte: Les Musiciens du Nil, by Ensemble Mizmar Baladi

Ensemble Mizmar Baladi (Egypt)
Egypte: Les Musiciens du Nil (1977)
8 tracks, 70 minutes (1988 extended CD reissue)
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In the world of music, Egypt is most well-known for its classical music: it has been considered the most glorious seat of Arabic classical music for many centuries. This album shows a different side of the country’s musical culture. I guess you would call this folk music from Upper Egypt – that’s the south of the country, named for being upstream of the River Nile. This was the first recording of the legendary group known in Egypt as the Ensemble Mizmar Baladi, but who, due to the success of this album, are known abroad under the name The Musicians of the Nile.

Across this album, the ensemble play many different instruments, but the most prominent melodic accompaniments all have a special something about them: there is the mizmar (a high-pitched shawm) and the rabab (a fiddle with one or two strings). Both of these are played in threes, and they all have quite a whining, buzzy tone that could put some off, but I find entrancing. My favourite instrument showcased on this album, though, is the argoul, the long double-clarinet. It has such a great sound – one pipe provides a drone and the other the melody, and the musician (here Mustafa Abdel Aziz) uses circular breathing to keep a continuous sound, giving it the effect of a particularly reedy bagpipe. The argoul is only featured on a couple of tracks, an untitled taksim (improvised solo) and the track ‘Tayyara’, but I find them so captivating. I actually conducted one of my rare in-depth musicological analyses on the argoul taksim on this album – feel free to get in touch if you fancy a read!

While it is obvious by the melodies and rhythms that these pieces come from an Arabic culture, it really is a world away from the classical traditions of Cairo. The timbres at play are very far removed from the shimmering tones of the oud, qanun or ney, and the baladi rhythms used throughout are nothing if not invitations to dance. The classical styles of Egypt are certainly wonderful and captivating in their own way, but I know which music I’d rather be surrounded by during an incense-and-coffee fuelled evening in Luxor.