Thursday, March 11, 2010

mawal = موال


inspired by steve's upgrade of the site, here's a few favorite tunes of mine, roots from a different yard,

ok this is the mawal style - kind of bluesy and soulful, not sure exactly what mawal means or where it's from, but it's sung across the middle east, often as an improvised intro to a tune.

mawal doesnt feature high on the arab pop charts, and seldom seems to get released in the west.these are gathered from obscure corners of the web, & so i can make no apologies for the very patchy quality!

1. so we start with asala, the nightingale of damascus, no1 diva of syria, forgetting the words in front of an all star audience (also available on youtube!)


2. hussam al-rassam from iraq, classic lament for basra,

3. salah_abdul_ghafoor_-_hechat_heya - also iraqi, i think, o dear a miserable tune about love

4. couple of oldies from abdu el-iskandrani, who i know nothing about at all... sounds egyptian maybe from alexandria? no idea what sort of vintage... titles should be:
موال - أهل الكرم - mawal - ahl il karam
باب الحظوظ - baab al hazouz

any feedback will be appreciated, enjoy!!!

2 comments:

the_voice_of_reason said...

Interesting stuff. I'm not really familiar with the Islamic sounds of the Middle East, apart from some passing familiarity with Jalal Zolfonoun and Seyed Khalil Alinejad, so thanks are due for further opening my ears.

lala said...

cheers VoR,
i got to say tho, this is definitely NOT islamic music, the folks who make it may be muslims (or not) but the subject matter is generally fairly profane.
mawal would not be seen as respectable by good muslims,

working on chapter II ......