Baladi Blues 2

Guy Schalom is one of the UK's leading percussionists in klezmer and Arabic music, having played with the Klezmatics, Natacha Atlas and Mahmoud Fadl. Leader of the Baladi Blues Ensemble, Schalom rattles out propulsive rhythms on darbouka (called tabla in Egypt) playing a seductive but little-known style of Egyptian music that became popular in the clubs of Cairo in the 1940s and 50s. In the ensemble are two fantastic veteran musicians, now resident in the UK: Sheik Taha on quarter-tone accordion (who made some of the first recordings on this hybrid instrument in the 1950s) and Ahmed El Saidi on saxophone. With the wonderful Frank London guesting on trumpet, this is stripped-down music, relying on instrumental solos accompanied by tight percussion, making it very popular with bellydancers.

The opening ‘Tamra Henna’ shows off how this music works in an ensemble, throwing phrases from accordion, to trumpet to sax and occasionally all joining together. Elsewhere there are fantastic solos – the keening saxophone on ‘Afrah Baladi’ and deep-throated accordion on ‘Raqs El Hawanem’. The fast-paced ‘Samir Sorour’ is presumably a tribute to the sax player of the same name whose instruments Ahmed El Saidi has inherited. This would be a masterful album with the addition of a (preferably female) vocalist. After all it was Baladi instrumentalists who were behind some of the great hits by Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez.