ISSUE 56-2012 inside: Guy Schalom The Cairo Cats Mehdea Mahdavi Sitara Kathryn Whittington and much more...
AN INTERVIEW WITH Guy Schalom BY VIVIENNE RADFAR 22
Guy Schalom I first heard of Guy several years ago from one of my best friends, fellow dancer and teacher, Georgina Howson. She had been organising live drum sessions with him to perfect her drum solo technique and had sung his praises to me. Subsequently, I was lucky enough to see him perform for the first time (both as a dancer and musician) at her Café Cairo event, and was in awe of his amazing talent. Needless to say I snapped him up for my own Kismet Kasbah events in the following few years. Since then he has gone on to greater and greater things, increasing his reputation as a master musician, and being in demand all over the world - whilst still finding time to organise his own events promoting Egyptian music and dance, and producing best selling CDs such as the Baladi Blues series. His next event is the official launch of Baladi Blues 3: The Art of Baligh Hamdi at Dingwalls in north London on Sunday 20th May. The Baladi Blues Ensemble comprises Guy on tabla, the legendary Sheikh Taha on accordion, Ahmed El Saidi on saxophone and Adam Warne on percussion. I met up with Guy recently to catch up on what he has been doing recently and to find out more about this event. Guy the last time I saw you, you were performing at one of my own haflahs in 2008 and you have been extremely busy over the last few years. What have you been involved in more recently? Well, after a four-year break from recording, I released my second CD in the Baladi Blues series Tribute to the Masters in March 2011. This has actually reinvigorated the public interest in the band and Egyptian Baladi in general. Most of my time has gone into touring with the Baladi Blues Ensemble. I've also been pretty busy playing drums and percussion on album recordings for other artists such as Cigdem Aslan, Los Desterrados, Katy Carr, Judith Silver and the Dead Victorians. Studio work is great fun because I get to play a variety of styles from Polish Pop to Greek/Turkish Rembetika to English Music Hall! In terms of live touring outside of the Baladi projects, I've been mostly involved in world music projects such as The Other Europeans and Konsonans Retro. These bands are unique because in all of them we're bringing artists together from disparate cultures and musical backgrounds. I can honestly say that we are genuinely breaking new ground with virtually every project I am involved with. That's a good feeling. I'm also part way through a law degree and I try and get away as often as I can to do some SCUBA diving. Which of those has been the most exciting for you? Well, I love the recording because it is challenging and extremely varied. But at the end of the day, I am most happy playing live. The reason I play music is to connect with people. And with music you can do that on a deeper and sometimes more profound level than you can with words alone. When I'm on stage, I enjoy the interaction with the other musicians and dancers and I love the energy and feedback we get from our audiences. There is nothing to compare with that feeling. It's a powerful experience for everyone involved. Where has your music taken you which countries have you been lucky enough to perform in lately? Wooo... I'll have to check last year's diary. Here we go, a selection from the past year: I was with The Other Europeans at the Womex festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. In Cologne, Germany, I was musical director of a theatre show (in Yiddish!) starring 40 teenage musicians, singers and actors. In terms of Egyptian music specifically, I gave a solo performance at the first ever Helsinki Hafla Intensive festival in Finland; I taught dance and percussion in Luxor, Egypt with Jane Wass on her week-long residential; and the Baladi Blues Ensemble appeared with Nabila Sabha at the gala show of the Basar Oriental Festival in Berlin. My development work took me to the Israel/Lebanon border where I was researching a style of Jewish music heavily influenced by Lebanese Debka. And I went to Madrid three times in 2011 to study Flamenco music and percussion. Watch this space! I am extremely lucky to do what I do because I am exposed to such cultural diversity. The flip side is that there simply isn't enough time to get to properly explore these amazing cities I visit. 23
I was always excited by the fact that not only are you an amazing musician, I was lucky enough to see you perform the traditional male tahtib on several occasions. This was a real treat as we don t very often get to see male dancers performing this traditional Saiidi dance do you still do this or are you concentrating exclusively on your music? I am glad you identified my style of dancing in this way. The male stick dance style that I do is worlds apart from the 'Reda' style or the more touristic style people often see. I learnt to dance from the folk musicians in Luxor. They're not trained dancers, they just dance to celebrate special events and to express their happiness. For me, the movements are more 'organic' in that they suit the human body in a more natural way. It's simple, expressive, powerful dancing as opposed to being athletic. And yes, I do still dance on stage and almost always with my band. For anyone interested in learning this powerful dance, I'll be teaching a class at the Middle Eastern Music, Dance and Drum Festival near Bath this summer (2012). Why is dance so important to you as a musician? Dancing, singing and playing music are all about rhythm and movement. They're so similar that I find it almost impossible to separate them. As a musician, I must have a really strong understanding of dance movement so I can pace the energy and dynamics of my music to match those of the dancer. And when I dance, I know what the musicians are thinking. I know I need to give clear signals - well in advance - and I need to interact and look the musicians in the eye from time to time. My advice for dancers is to become students of MUSIC. I'm not demanding musical virtuosity, but I would expect a hunger and curiosity to understand how music is created and what individual pieces of music mean. For example, instead of practicing choreographies for eight hours a day, learn to sing the songs in your set, translate the lyrics, have a go at playing some of the basic rhythms on a tabla or duff. Believe me, this will take your dancing to another level, because when you get on stage, no amount of technique will save you if you don't understand the music you're dancing to. 24
How much teaching do you do these days? Education is still a high priority for me, so I do as much as my performing schedule will allow. I am currently in the middle of the RAKSlife education course, which a year-long course organised by Nabila Sabha in Berlin. I also teach on several workshops and residential courses organised by Jane Wass in cities such as London, Cork and Luxor. And the Baladi Blues Ensemble teach on a number of residentials throughout the country. For me, teaching, performing and writing (music articles) all as part and parcel of letting people know what Egyptian Baladi is all about. Many Egyptian dancers and musicians have heard of Baladi, but outside of our small world, Baladi is relatively unknown. We have some amazingly talented Egyptian musicians in Europe who are still very active and I believe their music should be heard and appreciated even more widely. And the best ambassadors for this music are the dancers and musicians that I teach and perform to. The more 'ambassadors' for Egyptian Baladi there are - shouting about the music and dance and sharing their passion - the better chance there is for this art form to survive into future generations. You were nominated for a music award recently can you tell me more about this? That's the Songlines World Music Award. The category is 'Best Group'. We were nominated following the success of our last album 'Baladi Blues 2'. The results will be published next month, but whoever wins, it's just great to have our music acknowledged. What is your philosophy behind the Baladi Blues Ensemble and what are you trying to achieve with the events you organise? I never set out to become a 'bandleader' as such. But our first album became so popular that we started receiving requests for live performances. So, I thought why not? and the rest is history. I must say I am immensely grateful to event promoters such as you who gave us a platform in the early days. We couldn't have done it without you. The way I see it, Baladi is all about connections. Baladi connects different generations, cultures (e.g. East and West), religions, languages, technology etc. and maybe most significantly it connects music with dance. Our creative output represents all of those connections. And that's the philosophy that all the band members share. We highlight our diversity and play on it. Your next event is the launch of your new CD: Baladi Blues 3: The Art of Baligh Hamdi. Can you tell me more about this and why you chose to feature the music of Baligh Hamdi? I felt strongly that with 'Tribute to the Masters' we had pretty much achieved everything I had set out to achieve in terms of improvised Baladi. The music was recorded in a state of the art studio, it was well performed and we captured the energy, spontaneity and playfulness of Ashra Baladi. We even had trumpet on many tracks too, which for me is a key instrument in improvised Baladi music. For the time being at least, it's time to progress. So, I picked my favourite Egyptian songs, and it turned out they were all composed by the same person: Baligh Hamdi. And even better - his compositions suited our band sound perfectly. For instance his use of the heavy folk rhythms and accordion and saxophone solos often found in Baladi. So this was a very natural step for us. I had my theme and I went with my instinct. The result is our forthcoming CD. We're at a very exciting cross road indeed, and I am certain our fans will be happy with the new material. The CD launch on Sunday 20th May will be our first time performing all the Baligh Hamdi repertoire live and I can't wait. If you can t wait until 20th May, listen to the latest podcast on my website (www.guyschalom.com) for a sneak preview! You have several special guests performing with you on 20th May what made you choose these particular performers? Well our guest artists also feature on the new album. Baligh Hamdi's instrumental compositions are excellent, but he is best known for the music he wrote for singers. So I wanted to include vocals on the new CD. I instantly thought of Abdul Salam Kheir who had worked with Baligh in the past and is an expert on his music. He recorded two songs with us and played oud (Arabic lute) on a third. His voice sounds very rich and earthy so blended very well with us. Baligh Hamdi was married to the Lebanese singer Warda for around 10 years and wrote many songs for her too. I wanted to include at least one of those songs, so I asked the very talented Julia Naidenko to join us. Julia is a great Arabic pop singer and she adds a modern twist to our sound. We also have a Flamenco guitarist on the album called Glenn Sharp. Baligh composed many solos for guitar so I needed a guitar on the album, and I love the intensity and passion of Flamenco so it was a perfect fit. 25
Finally, what are your plans for the future where will your music take you next? For the rest of the year, we'll be touring the new material, visit my website (www.guyschalom.com) to find out where you can see us live. I also plan to continue 'spreading the word' about Egyptian music, so I am launching a series of free music talks called: 'Baladi In Brief'. These are introductory sessions on a range of subjects relating to Egyptian music. Dance teachers host the event and I will deliver the master-classes for free. Dance teachers: get in touch! I have also been approached by BBC4 to help them produce a documentary on Klezmer (East European Jewish Wedding music), which I've started working on already. And I am hoping to get a documentary made about Egyptian Baladi - so if there are any budding film-makers out there, please drop me a line. It has been a real pleasure seeing you again after all this time, good luck for the 20th May - I ll certainly be buying my ticket for what is sure to be a fantastic evening s entertainment of authentic Egyptian music. Guy Schalom & the Baladi Blues Ensemble s album launch will be on Sunday 20th May 2012 at Dingwalls in Camden, London. Buy tickets by visiting: www.guyschalom.com or calling: 07858 549736 But right now, I am focussing on our album launch on Sunday 20th May. There's a real buzz about this event, we have people from all over Europe coming, so I'm going to make sure it goes off with a BANG! 26