Musicians of the Nile pay tribute to Oum Kalthoum in Paris

It was an exuberant evening of Egyptian folk music at Paris’ Cité de la Musique, where the packed concert hall seats around 1,000 people. And why? To mark 50 years since the death of Oum Kalthoum, the most iconic singer of Egypt and the Arab world, whose funeral in Cairo in 1975 was attended by an estimated four million fans. The anniversary was celebrated at Paris’ Philharmonie with several concerts, including a visit from the Music Ensemble of the Cairo Opera. But I went for an evening given by the Musicians of the Nile on February 1.

Oum Kalthoum was born into a rural community in the Nile Delta and always appreciated her village past. Les Musiciens du Nil are from Luxor, Upper Egypt, not Kalthoum’s territory, but Alain Weber, world music director at the Philharmonie, has had a long relationship with the musicians since the 1970s and this was a good excuse to bring them back and show the continuing, but endangered, tradition of rural Egyptian folk music.

Les Musiciens du Nil are not a fixed group, as such, but artists selected by Weber from a community of traditional musicians performing for celebrations in Luxor. There were two contrasting ensembles for this event, the first featuring flutes (arghul and suffara), bowed spike fiddles (rababah), percussionists and singers. The second, more outdoor and raucous in character, featured three oboe-like shawms (mizmar) and percussion.

However, it opened with a striking prayer by young vocalist Fatin Youssef, dressed in a white robe, singing a religious song that Oum Kalthoum herself performed. Youssef has a confident and powerful voice, and accompanied just by kaval flute, it’s a stunning opening for the celebrations ahead. Later, she will return in black for two other Oum Kalthoum film songs that sound magnificent with the traditional accompaniment.

The raspy spike-fiddles of the first group, Zarhat al-Uqsur, have a reedy, earthy sound, almost like oboes, though the bamboo flutes sound much more airborne. The high swooping melodies of the suffara flute sound like birds weaving around one of those many-holed dovecots of Upper Egypt. The low and high textures, with dynamic percussion on frame drum (duff) and intricate goblet (tabla), are a fantastic accompaniment to several instrumentalists who also sing. Al Ham Mohammed Mourad, previously playing frame drum, gives a spectacular finale, ranging from one side of the stage to the other and singing in a magisterial voice.

The second group, with three piercing mizmar, are raucous and wild with prodigious circular breathing. Several solos from Raïs Mohammad Gamal feature ecstatic melodies with notes that go on forever; they’re clear highlights of the evening. Helping transport the audience to the banks of the Nile throughout are projections of colourful designs from Egyptian party tents, as well as dancing that culminates in a stylised stick fight with long, unwieldy poles, striking against each other in a measured way. I think Oum Kalthoum would have loved it.