The Jets Band: The Egyptian Les Abranis? - فرقة الجيتس.

Hiy'all, erp! I mean Salam...

I had a great ball lasterday upping Simone's first (and best) three albums. That said, once you're in Egypt it's hard for you to leave that great country as one adage there goes, "if you drink from the Nile, you have to return back again to it." So, I decided to get back to Egypt for this post flying a 'Jets' plane, and feature for your aural-pleasures some rare-ass, Egyptian rock music from the late 70's and mid-80's.

Egypt: The Land of The Pyramids.

This music is really rare, no doubt about it. It was recorded and produced on small budgets, and distributed in small numbers. The bands are all but gone, too and it's next to impossible to find information about them. I really had a hard time tracing any information about these bands for years. It wasn't easy, trust me. Few sources lead you at the long run, only... to find absobloodutely fark-all 'bout any of these old Arab rock bands that were popular 30-40 years aborning. This is the 'shove' that gave me the much-needed 'push' to write this entire blog so that the world won't take that hard road as I did (and, still do), and to show some Arabic, and various listen-worthy Middle-eastern bands and artists that are really good.

Tonight's band is an Egyptian, short-lived six-member collective of enthusiasts who got together at the end of the 70's to play some music naming their selves 'The Jets' (El-Jets - الجتس). Their music would be so easily enjoyable because it flows like honey from the land of Pharaohs, and is similar to that of the Kabyle rock (also called Rockabyle) groups like Les Abranis (الأبرانس), who rocked Algeria for many years and still do... their albums and cassettes became collectors' item the world over appearing in many prestigious compilations like the famous 'Waking Up Scheherazade', but not this band. Naw.

So, allow me 'ere to introduce you to this amazing band.

The Jets:

The Jets' first lineup circa 1978.

It was founded by Samir Habib (third from the left), who was a music prodigy with a taste that harked back to old  Arabic classicals; a musician who wanted to make old music new so, he re-wrote music for most popular 'baladi' (local folk), 'tarabyat' (old classical tunes), 'Fairuzyat/Rahbaniyat' (music of the Brothers Rahbani who also composed songs for Fairuz), 'Wahabyat' (music of Mohammed Abdel-Wahab), The Bandali Family... etc in a new format, making it sound amazingly cool.

The Jets' full lineup circa 1986.

Then, and after gaining a meager foothold at the Cairo club scene (they started playing at the famous Good Shot club in 1975 which was a-buzz with tourists who at that time, wanted to get a taste of that 70's 'eastasy' that was going all around the Arab world), the Jets started to write their own music soon and issued one album after the other (mostly on Compact-Cassettes), besides getting invited to sing and play at private parties, weddings, open-air small festivals, and even make music for commercials and quiz shows on Egypt T.V..

Iman Younis on Egypt T.V. - early 80s.

Al-Masrieen, w/Iman Younis (middle).

The Jets (الجيتس), were a rock band collective which had a huge popularity in a competitive music-sphere, set there at the topmost spot among many Egyptian 70s' bands like Ferqat Al-Masrieen ('The Egyptians Band' with Hani Chinoudah), Ferqat Al-Houb Wa Al-Salam ('The Love And Peace Band'), Ferqat Al-Asdeka'a ('The Friends Band'), The Black Coats, Les Petite Chats, Sahara Band, Ferqat Al-Nahar ('Morning'), Ferqat Al-Insan ('Human'), Ferqat Ashorouk ('The Rising Sun'), Tiebah (Hussein & Moudi El-Imam), Dr. Izzat Ouf & The 4-M Band ... etc. The original lineup was made of six members but it grew to seven when pop female singer Iman Younis joined them from Al-Masrieen Band to sing in an album (Abu Shanabat: a children's songs album), in the mid-80's. She has now a music school ('Emylise School for Music'), and leads a happy content life teaching kids how to play various instruments and how to practice singing.

The Jets 1st album.

As same for most of the above-mentioned bands, the Jets disbanded and some of its members spent the rest of their lives singing at hotels and bars to a gaggle of gawp-happy tourons (tourist morons). Samir Habib quit the band in the late 80's and the remaining members regrouped with Iman for one last album (Ya Police), adding a saxophone (read: lame), and keyboards (read again: lamer), with Jalal Saleh as co-singer to Iman's sing-a-longa voice. Few months on, and then the band went poof forever.

The Jets sounded like almost any 70's Arabeat rockers in their first years: fuck-you garage-y raw guitar strings, heavy 'chunk' drumming with a hollow echo-effect to it (studio engineering was mediocre, mind), and head-swirling rock lyrics. But, the over-all groovtacular proto-prog, psych-band sound was drowned as the early-80s' Melodelica tunes rolled in and their songs started to erm, suck. All 'nd all, many styles are there to pick and choose from. So, let's enjoy this rare music sung in Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and English.(Whews! Must 'ave been the tourons. So 'worldelica!').


I know I might sound here like a completist shit, big whupski... But, I shall up all of their first six albums in one Mediafire Cloud folder file, and separately as individual downloadable links. Fullstop. And, you know what else? I will up one of their 'Live' albums (sung in English), to make the list complete. The tote would be 7 albums,babes. Not bad for a night spent beside the Nile, righty-oh? If the old adage saying holds any truth to it, man alive! I wanna drink the whole of the damn rivaaa!

Here below are the linkages to their albums, individually.

The Jets - الجيتس: Complete Discography:

-First Album - Shedd El-Hizam - (Fasten Your Seat-Belts).

-Second Album - Alo!! Alo!!











-Third Album - Abd El-Routine - (Slave of Routine).









 
-Fourth Album - El-Maya Feen Ya Afandi - (Where's The Water, Sir).

-Fifth Album - Sidi Ya Sidi - (Boy Oh Boy).

-Sixth Album - Abou Eshanabat - (The Moustachioed One).

 
-Seventh Album - Ya Police - ('Help! Police')*.
-The Jets - Live Recordings (in English).
-Bonus:
The Jets: Live at The Good Shot Club.**


*[Not uploaded, sorz babes].
**[Was uploaded on 03|15|12].


Guys and guyettes, I urge you to enjoy these rare tracks. They are yours at Audiotopia: your faithful blog for Middle-eastern sounds.

Rock on.

H.H.

Simone: Egypt's Madonna? - سـيـمــون.

Halla!

Today's the birthday anniversary of Mohammed Abdel-Wahab (13th March, 1902- 4th May, 1991). A very gigantic figure of Arabic music who's Egyptian. Abdel-Wahab's music defined a whole century of Arab-listeners over and over, keeping the olden traditional forms of music intact, and at the same time, developing these into worldly standards. He was a genius. His music is studied by scholars nowadays to get hints on how old and new music can live side by side.

This anniversary has led me to think for a while about the Egyptian music in general, and the 'new stuff' in particular. I don't like extremes such as 'old' and 'new'. But, what if I wanted to see who among the many, uncountable Egyptian musicians was the most 'out there'? Whose music was the bravest attempt at modern sounds, and still wasn't as boring as, say Madonna's? Simone was the answer.


Simone:

'Sweet' Simone. 1988.

She's adorable. I mean it. This young Egyptian woman (full name: Simone Phillipe Kamil,  born 1966 - سيمون), beside being so attractive, was 'One-dear-ful' and oddtastic, too. First, one of her close cousins is none other than (gulp?) Hassan Al-Asmar! Wow! She, in the meanwhile looks like a supermodel when her famous chaabi  cuzza (who passed away earlier this year), looked like one of these street peddlers that sell 'termis' (lupine; considered the cheapest food to buy, and for a nutritian... the world's most non-bioavailable food), on some street abutting the Nile in Cairo!

Simone:
the coolest girl in Egypt

To continue in my explanation... one scene in a film these two shared the lead roles at, has them both groping and kissing like hot monkeys! When in a strict Islamic-tradition country like Egypt such PDAs would start a fuckin' riot. Islamist rightists are now back at the power seats in the newly-elected Egyptian Parliament, and it's not boding well so far for artists and musicians alike (some got jailed last month, and one of them was A'adil Imam; Egypt's first actor). Such open sexual freedom demands cojones on Hassan's side, and a load of heuvos for Simone's and yes ma dearies... She got these by the truck-load.

She was born in Shubra which is a very popular (or, chaabi) neighbourhood, in uptown Cairo, and came from the same descent as Hassan himself was known: Saeedi. These are like 'yokels'/'boors'/'hicks' etc in say America, clodhoppers in England, and country folks everywhere else in the world. Saeedis, or as some call these folk people sa'aiydah, are a ripe fodder for jovial jokes and urban legends as well. Everyone all around the Arab world takes alorra Mickey outta them. But, we're not here to do the same to Simone. God forbid it.

On The Nile, circa 1989.

Her first singing career steps were at a singing contest for hmm, Greek songs. Simone won the contest with flying colours. I don't think that it's her voice only that got her that, but she's a stunna (in Egyptian aesthetic levels, OFC). Soon, every producer and film director wanted to put his hands on this new 'Madonna' lookalike. Actually, that's become her nickname in Egypt: Madonna Masr (مادونا مصر), on which she said to the press once that she, "didn't mean to become Khwajayah", or 'foreign'. Her singing career was a musical 'odd-yssey' dedicated to a young generation of Egyptian youth who wanted to feel free, have fun, and yes... be able to dress; walk, talk, get sad, mad, bad... and love the way they very well damn pleased. The whole world has witnessed these youngsters in that 25th, January, 2010 revolution, or 'Sawrat Masr' and how they single-handedly toppled Mubarak's reign and presented him to a tribunal to prosecute his ass. Gyppies rock, yeah... but, 90% of that revolution was backed by American and western (read: France and Britain) neo-colonial dickwads to set the country at chaos so they can siphon all the natural gas reservoirs newly-discovered near Doumyat city on the Mediterranean coast up north.

Anyways Simone's not yer average Jane. Nah. She's wild (picture on far left), mischievous, playful, funny, crazy-kooky. She's well-composed (picture on the far right), gentle, loving, sweet-eyed, all a woman. And the middle picture shows how she looks 112% Madonna! (middle one)... This young woman —even in a society that eats 'gossip' and rumors with every meal like the Gyppies, she laughed at these rumors that were mostly endless sexual innuendos about her having an affair with this or that so-and-so artist/businessman etc. Simone's also well-educated and knows many languages, too. She graduated from The American University in Cairo (AUC), and holds a B.A. in French Literature.

Singing on stage, 1991.

That contest was part of the AUC's extracurricular activities in fact, and a well-known producer who managed many Egyptian singers at that time (namely, Tariq Al-Kashif), was given the heads-up by the famous writer Jamal Abdel-Aziz about her. Add one to one... I mean, three... and he ended up producing her first three albums which I will up them all for yer listening pleasure right here in this post. Other art directors took notice of her exceptional looks and singing ability and were really interested in this young woman as to make a bunch of films starring herself alongside the 'usual suspect' male popular star. The total of her albums amount to six, and they are good works of 80's & early 90's Arabic popular music that differ by streets and miles than Abdel-Wahab's classical Arabic music. But, still worth a listen. Some even seemingly veer audibly on synth-pop, hip-hop, and yeah... that much-abhorred word 'disco'.

With singer-actor Mohammed Munir
in Youm Mour We Youm Helw - 1988
a Kahyeri Besharah film.

Then, eh... came her T.V. years, and that was just horrible. Honestly, she's not a good actress. The damage didn't stop at this: a crazyassed theatre star (actor Mohammed Subhi) asked her to perform popular plays with him and she agreed wholeheartedly. This Subhi whatever was a nutcase whose plays were musical headache-inducing, three-hour non-stop retardedness. I'm sure as sin on Sunday it was the beginning of the end for both her singing and acting career. Damn! Another shitwad who did her damage was Amr Diab. This fat cunt the western world loves to listen to and mumbles his stupid songs like bubonic baboons... chose her to star with him in one of his films (Ice-cream Fee Gleem - آيس كريم في جليم), just to make use of her good looks to sell tickets. Little wonder he's still singing and she's not, and that he's a millionaire, too.

Khwajayah, or foreign Simone.

When asked who does she think will be the best star in the music scene (and, the acting one) back in the late-80s... Egyptian film-star Souad Husni said, "Simone will!". Simone was a sweet woman and not a sweet Cinderella story that kitchy children books like to make out of a simple success story. Strong will and a real life-affirming love makes people stars regardless of how much one has behind the bank doors, or who sings whose songs. She didn't become rich like 'Maddy-Mo The Material Girl Madge' did, but she was rich in heart with her mellow, child-like innocence and very cute voice one must hear from time to time to remind him or herself how life is still worth living.

Jacket of her last album Tani Tani.

Simone today:
Still young and veracious. Grr!

Lastly, and in one interview, she was asked what's the best film role that she most wanted to act, and her answer was: Susan Hayward's Barbara Graham in her 1958 film 'I Want to Live!'. She didn't win much stardom for too long, correct... she lost lovers here and there, righto... but, she won her life. I shouldn't have written her a long post like this: all I had to say about Simone was one word: Happy.



Have fun listening to her 'happy' songs that most Arabs have forgotten, sadly. You're to find here her first three albums and these came out in the early 90's but the songs are from different collections and studio recordings made between the mid-80's up to the early 90's. Bonus is a 1993 'Best Hits' comp. The music varies from New-Romantic 80's sound, to old-skool hip-hop and drum-machine-led break-beats. Some songs were remakes, or 'covers' of Euro-disco hits from the mid-80's. It's a variation of styles little seen in any Arab pop singer. Simone's music is gorge, and her voice makes even those stupid songs sound so good to listen to, and ultimately... sing. A true musician, really.

Les' sing now. Funjoy!

1.) Simone سيمون - (Batkalim) Gad - I Am Talking Seriously - بتكلم جَد issued 1990.

01- Beskout - (Biscuit) - بسكوت

02- Einou Mine - (He's Eying Me) - عينو مني
03- Hikayat - (Stories) - حكايات
04- Leila - (Night) - ليلة
05- El-Haya - (Life) - الحياة
06- Toumba - *تومبا
07- Batkalim Gad - (I Am Talking Seriously) - بتكلم جَد

2.) Simone - Allo - ألو issued, 1991.

01- Helou We Morr - (Bittersweet) - حلو و مر
02- Allo - ألو

03- Rekka - (Sweetness) - رقة

04- Einey - (My Eye) - عيني

05- Masbsoutah - (Correct) - مزبوطة

06- Ana Moush Seme'et (I Didn't Hear A Thing) - أنا مش سمعت

07- Al Eih (As If) - آل إيه

08- Wareeny (Show Me) - وريني

09- Allo - (Instrumental)

10- Ana Moush Seme'et - (Instrumental)

3.) Simone - Aheb Akolak - أحب أقولك - I Like to Tell You issued 1993.
01- Estana Chiwayah (Stay for Just A While) - إستنه شوية

02- Mashia Fi Hali (Walking On My Own) - ماشية في حالي
03- Ella Embareh (All But Yesterday) - إللا إمبارح
04- Sadekni Behebak (Believe Me, I love You) - صدقني بحبك
05- Fee El-Gana (In Heaven) - في الجنة
06- Aheb Akloak - (I Like to Tell You) - أحب أقولك
07- Ayza Asarakh - (I Want to Be Open With You) - عايزة أصارحك
08- Al Dounia Trouk - (Life Gets Better) - الدنيا تروق

Simone - Greatest Hits issued 1993.
01- Taxi - تاكسي
02- Batkalim Gad
03- Tani - (Again) تاني
04- Casanova - كازانوفا
05- Wayyak - (With You) وياك
06- Ka'edeen Sakteen - (Sitting Silently) قاعدين ساكتين
07- Einou Mine
08- Toumba*
09- Kalbi El-Loulou - (My Pearly Heart) قلبي اللولو
10- Merci - ميرسي

*A remake of Aris San's Boom Pam! Wonderful.

H.H.

Abdallah Safar: The Jordanian Omar Khourshid? - عبدالله صَفَر.

Greets from... Jordan.


Many people don't know the Middle-eastern kingdom called Jordan from a regular bar of soap. It's understandable, because this country we're talking about here is a small, dickwater-nascent kingdom home to just 6,8 million people.

Jordan (or, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to give you but the full name), has a central geographical position in the levantine area called the Mid-Rim (no laughs there at the back, babes), and this centralized emplacement gave it a gravitational force for almost all musicians from nearby, border-sharing countries like Syria; Lebanon, Egypt, and Israel/Palestine to come and play in the 60's and 70's.

The country has no underground life like that of Beirut, unfortunately which never helped the place to grow its own distinctive musical identity. Especially, when the world was so rocking to British-invasion sounds that came in the 60's as we all know, and changed the face of popular music for ever and a day. Still, and through my relentless search, I managed to trace some bands that played in and around Amman; the capital, in the late 60's and early 70's. These 'garage' bands were formed for few months only by mostly Circassian young'uns who played their cheaply-bought instruments (I even saw some electric guits that didn't bear any maker brand!), and did so jus' for their own enjoyment, and to impress the local chick. Needless to say what kind of bands they were trying to become sound-alike with: the Beatles and Rolling Stones (two curse words, trust you me love-muffins). Now, when one asks about the reason for the absence of such scene in Jordan when say, in Lebanon, around 100+ garage bands were active and playing the local bars like billyo... one should realize that the financial 'shituation' here was-and-still-is so terrible that it forebode anyone with a real musical endeavour to go ahead with their plans.

Omar Khourshid in one popular, Egyptian 70's film
holding his famous honey-burst Fender Strat guitar.

The sob-story takes a more-cheerful turn not far from Jordan in Egypt, home to King Tote-Axe-Omar: a wholly, insanely-cool Guitar God ('Godtar'), who played music on his simplistic, electric musical instrument in a way no-one in their dreams thought possible (some critics even compare his music as something completely off this planet), and all of that was before Dick Dale (an Arab by birth being half-Lebanese), or Aris San (an Israelite-Greek whose playing's a mere carbon-copy of Omar's impeccable fret-manship) were famous. Omar Khourshid played in and out of Egypt when the real-dealio was to play where the coo'kats convened in Beirut, Lebanon butts-to-nuts with mega-monied playboys, international druglords, and mafiosos.

Arabs are one nation. There are no real; tangible, impending borders between us. If one wants to go to Egypt, they won't feel out of place. Same for Omar when he came to Jordan in the mid-80s (and, years before that), to celebrate with his 'Arabrethren' the holidays season at one of the big-buzzing, five-star hotels around the capital city of Amman; namely, the Intercontinental. And at one new-year's Eve party, the in-house hotel-band's leader Abdallah Safar finally was able to meet his God.

This was around 1985. Money was flowing in from returning expat Jordanians coming back from the Gulf area for a few weeks to enjoy the meek weather here better than stay in the Gulf peninsula where as they say, 'if you'd leave an egg on the curb, it'd boil in three secs!'. The expats were the fuel inside this barely-worth-it musical scene in Jordan. Regardless of haves and have-nots... it lubricated the cogs well enough to turn on until the early 90's, at least, when the Gulf War kabooshed the whole thang in a climatic bang in 1991.

Most musicians in Jordan had no chance at making it here, when on the contrary, and in comparison to the late 60's scene in Jordan where new artists like Samira Tawfic (she came from Lebanon), Fahd Ballan (Syria), Fouad Hijazi (Lebanon), saw their first days of stardom, recognition, and fame. Samira, for example, was so famous in Jordan that she was nicknamed 'Umm El-Jiesh': The Mother of The Army from the many times she's called to sing for Jordanian army troops in the 70's. Fahd Ballan himself had a huge following of faithful fans in the eastern townlet of E-Zarqah, and when he died the whole town mourned him as if he's one of them.

A nostalgic, yet futuristic picture featuring
The Guitar Man and what he played later on:
Farfisa org, played by Mohammed Azzam here.

On and on, small-budget, no-goodnik artists like Abdallah Safar had to break potato-sized beads of sweat in badly-AC'd hotels, hopping around from this party to that... until he completely refrained from playing his guitar, and took the always-shitty Korg (Korean Org for the uninitiated), Ketron, and what-the-fuckin'-ever easy-peasy sounds techies try to duplicate inside these plastic dumb non-instruments.

Abdallah & Omar, in the mid-80s.

In the end, Abdallah's fascination with Omar was a sure sign that he wanted to make music that sounded like his. His band 'The Falcons' (الصقور), played some nice medleys but never had he or the band been put into record. He played here in Jordan for a short while before leaving entirely to stay as an expat in that land of Big-Everything: namely, the U-S-of-fuckin'-A to get 'big'. Boh.



Musically talking now, Abdallah's playing is a sincere copy-act of Omar's. His fluid intriguing string notes grow from stab-attacks much like Omar Khourshid's unparalleled playing. He's not a master, though. But, I'm sure in the 3 available below tracks, one can see how this young Jordanian guitar player has learned from the best. They are from the late 80's, and I will make sure in the coming posts to feature some Jordanian pop musicians worthy of a listen.

Abdallah Safar's Khourshidiyat.

Dig this dog!

H.H.

Ighd Al-Jalad: Sudan's Motown Band? - عقد الجلاد.

Ready for more Sudanese music?
Yes, indeed!

This time we're not going to stray far from 'band' sounds of Sudan, but take a few steps ahead in time to reach the early 80's. A ripe time for Sudan, since those who went off to work in oil-rich Arabian Gulf states (as we've mentioned in the previous post), came back loaded to the gills with whatever boons they toiled hard to get from those oil-choked 'cuntries'.

This meant more money to be spent on private (and public) parties. More fun, that is. Sudanese people are very fun-loving, and ahem, some are really quite the heavy drinkers (and by this I don't mean water, nyet).


All and all, money constitutes a great part in what keeps musicians going on. Music in 80's Sudan witnessed the most prolific era in regards to popular artists and bands like this one: Ighd Al-Jalad (Arabic: عقد الجلاد, or 'The Rope Necklace': a famous skin-made necklace worn by women in a province called 'Al-Jourtough' in Sudan. The skin is usually taken from a gazelle, or sometimes from a wild-cat that has a musk-gland. It's known to smell sweeter with age). The band's name is rather quaint in all honesty: it's about a woman's necklace when the band is predominantly male.  Moreover, the band itself is a mystery to many Sudanis, and most know next to nothing about it as it had frequent lineup changes, sometimes dwindling to just four members, and other times... to a howling twelve!

Ighd Al-Jalad in their early years. Early 80's.

Like Al-Balabil, they were a chorus-based band. Group sounds in Sudan were much needed because there were an abundance of solo singers and performers (both, male and female) in the late 70's. Ighd Al-Jalad had singers from both sexes maybe not in an equilibrium, but even that was set to balance by the strong, over-whelming lead 'power-voice' of one of its female singers; namely Manal Badir-Aldin. The other females were Hawa Adam Al-Mansouri who came from Ferqat Al-Samandal ('The Salamander Band')  which was mainly an instrumental band, and Amal Al-Nour.

The Ighd Al-Jalad Band in a cheerful pose.

They started around early 1984, gathering some lyrics to put to music led by the effortless Osman Al-Naou (bass guitarist and literally, its beating heart), taking their time to ripen and 'sweeten' for a handful of years until they've become well-known around the 80's pop music scene. In December, 1985 they'd their first T.V. debut on national Sudanese television, and ever since that day, their public hafla invitations and live acts are still at a good go.

Complete early line-up of Ighd Al-Jalad with best guesses at some of the unknown members' pictures.

This band was unlike any in Sudanese music history, because they broke some of the old rules, and invented more complex rhythms introducing some brave attempts at proto-dub music sometimes. The instruments were too many to care to count, but the main-stays were the lead and bass electric guitars,  percussion section consisting of the ever-present lap bongos, 'two' electric organs (wowsa!), and the charismatic accordion. Oh! Almost forgot! Fadamn! And the Oud!

The band pointedly was a progressive band minus the rock-moniker. They took a different path later on in their career, and popularized madayeh, or adulatory songs sung specifically for the Muslim Prophet, Mohammed. Then become— after a series of quittance and changes — more an entertainment band which can be seen in their perma-blue uniforms shirts.

They still are as sweet as they've started, though. Their music and old songs known to each and every Sudanese whether they are far from their much-beloved home, or close. I do like the older songs, of course without the saw-buzz Korg-y of modern Arabic pop music. In the link below you are to get a glimpse at their wonderful old songs, the same as you did for Al-Balabil:

18 songs in their entirety (I've more, but wanted to up the same number count as that of Al-Balabil's post, even shared the file as a sub within theirs just to make it a blissful experience for all), Ighd Al-Jalad has more than maybe 120 songs known to exist.

Ighd Al-Jalad - عقدالجلاد.

Do enjoy ma brathas and sistahs!

Bubai!


H.H.