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| Jazz
seems to be hitting it big in the Arab world. |
Jazz
is not something that people readily associate with the Middle East;
or the rest of the Muslim world for that matter. Mention that part
of the world, and sounds of racing Egyptian violin choruses or
goat-skin drum rhythms come to mind. It isn’t too often that one
associates Jazz greats such as Dave Brubeck, Count Basie, Charlie
Parker or Duke Ellington with the Middle East. But many people
forget that in its heyday, Jazz held sway throughout the world as
America’s pop music. In the same way that the Michael Jackson’s
and Madonna’s find a popular following overseas now, Jazz
luminaries of decades past enjoyed a decent amount of recognition
across the globe. Interestingly enough, that legacy of recognition
continues to this day in some of the least likely places.
Saudi
Swing
My
first encounter with the Middle East came in 1995. A recent Muslim
convert, I was interested in seeing how Islam was practiced in a
fully indigenous Islamic environment. So one day on a whim I applied
for a teaching position in Saudi Arabia. As God’s will would have
it, I was called for an interview the very next week, and not much
more than a week later was signed to a contract to teach Saudi
military recruits English.
Because
of economic constraints, the curriculum being taught was modeled on
a back-dated program created by the Defense Language Institute (DLI)
here in the United States. So dated was the material, that much of
its cultural context came from 1950s and 1960s America when
bobby-socks and hamburger stands were still prevalent. Pictures in
books were representative of that period as were various
colloquialisms and even audio clips found in the school’s
listening laboratories.
It
was in those listening labs though that these young Saudis were
introduced to American Jazz; and they liked it.
Now
mind you, these recruits did not listen to an overwhelming amount of
music, let alone American music. There was one student who had a
particular fascination with Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound
Machine, but he was an exception to the rule. So imagine my surprise
when, shortly after popping in a listening lesson tape, heads in the
classroom began bobbing and fingers began snapping.
I
was a minor fan of Jazz at the time; but my interest in the genre
remained limited to those Jazz greats my father had listened to when
I was a boy. It so happens that the song played at the beginning of
the taped lesson was unknown to me. Yet somehow it was familiar. It
was quirky and strangely paced, yet it had an unmistakable swing and
groove to it.
My
students also had no knowledge of the artist or title of the song;
but they surely knew good music when they heard it. And in an
otherwise austere and severely regimented military environment, this
little piece of music that preceded each of the taped audio lessons
provided a much needed weekly morale boost.
So
who was the mystery artist? None other than Thelonious Monk playing
“Well You Needn’t”. The tune, with its experimental
exploration of chord combinations and climbing scales is just the
kind of thing to make a person want to move; and it doesn’t take a
particular nationality to figure that out.
Nile
Notes
Like
many Muslims, I have been willing to, in the past, travel great
distances in the hopes of finding a spouse. Some years ago my
marital endeavors took me to that bustling cosmopolitan metropolis
of Cairo. Heavy with humidity from the Nile, the air seemed to just
sit all around me. My Arabic was not terribly good, so watching
Egyptian television was not much of an option. Therefore to escape
heat and boredom I took to the streets of Cairo to site see and soak
up as much Egyptian culture as possible.
Music
was everywhere. I expected to find music in cafes, but I was quite
surprised to find that from what seemed to be almost every other
car, music blared at the highest of decibel levels. Late into the
night taxis and other cars would pack the streets of Cairo blasting
the latest in popular Arabic music. On one occasion, I had to
actually ask a cab driver to turn his music down so that I could
hear myself think. Needless to say I became quite familiar with the
likes of such Arabic stars as Ehab Tawfeek, Amr Diab, Diana, Ahlam
and many others.
On
my more subdued evenings, I had the pleasure of visiting with the
family of the sister I was interested in marrying. It was during one
of these visits that Jazz in the Middle East once again thrust
itself to the fore.
For
the most part we would just sit and talk while sipping tea. I
don’t know that I’ve ever met more pleasant people. They were
thoroughly engaging and they always made me feel comfortable and
welcome.
So
welcoming was this family that on my last visit with them, I let my
guard down a bit and allowed myself to really relax as we talked. We
exchanged the expected pleasantries and they asked me what my
impressions of Cairo were. I proceeded to extol the virtues of
Egyptian culture and explained how, on the whole, it was just a
really wonderful trip. Hoping to emphasize the point, I decided to
sing the chorus of Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World”, which
at the time was very popular in some American television commercial
that I have long since forgotten. I put on my best Loius Armstrong
smile and did my best imitation of the Jazz great.
No
sooner had I finished the chorus, members of the family started
shouting “Louis Armstrong! Louis Armstrong! You know Louis
Armstrong?” This family was just so taken with the music of Louis
Armstrong, and the father went on to explain how he had always liked
American Jazz and how he had such fond memories of seeing certain
Jazz acts live in Cairo some years before.
As
for me, I was simply a hit, if I do say so myself. The rest of the
evening I was asked to sing as much Louis Armstrong as I possibly
could. I happily obliged. I didn’t leave Egypt with a wife; but I
did leave with a love of the people, some new friends and a new
appreciation of just how Jazz had influenced the world music scene.
Baghdad
Be-Bop
Cairo
is place that one might logically think to find Jazz music. Even
Saudi Arabia, with its close ties to the United States is a decent
bet for Jazz’s penetration. But there are some places that one
simply does not expect to find a Jazz connection. Iraq is one such
place.
I
visited Iraq in the summer of 1999, touring the country as part of a
humanitarian fact-finding mission. The conditions were then, as they
are now, desperate. Never had I seen a population so utterly
devastated. Words and pictures cannot adequately convey the dire
situation of the Iraqi people.
Life
there is extremely hard and for the average Iraqi, struggling to
make ends meet, broadening musical horizons is rather low on the
list of daily priorities. But even in Iraq, Jazz has a foothold of
sorts.
Consider
the story of Fadhil Razooki Michael. I met him in the North of Iraq
near the city of Mosul when the delegation I was with visited one of
the many Christian churches in that region. It was nearing sunset
and we had been to a couple other Christian sites that day and we
were hoping to squeeze in one more before we had to retire for the
evening. That was when we met Michael.
The
caretaker of At-Tahara Church, the 74-year-old Michael approached
the delegation and struck up conversation. His English was quite
good and as it turned out, he had spent some time in the United
States decades before when he was just a young man. First he had
lived in Texas (he actually sang “The Eyes of Texas Are upon
You” for the delegation) and then moved to Chicago where he worked
for Down Beat magazine.
Down
Beat is THE magazine for Jazz lovers. Founded back in 1934 it
has chronicled Jazz from its heyday to the present. And working for
such a publication at the time he would have been in Chicago,
Michael would have been right in the mix of the Jazz scene. Who
knows, maybe he even met or interviewed some the greats of the
genre.
These
days, Michael ekes out a living getting by on bread, dates and some
grapes when they are available. He didn’t say whether he still
enjoys Jazz, but given the circumstances, one can only assume that
music isn’t a big part of his life at this point. But Jazz did
touch him at one time, so much so that he wanted to work for a
magazine that specialized in that music.
It
never ceases to amaze me how much humans have in common. Music is
one of those universal languages that can attract devotees from all
walks of life from all over the world. That Jazz reached the desert
where one wouldn’t expect to find it only goes to show that maybe
we are all more alike than we are different.
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