The Rough Guide to Arabic Café

What exactly does Arabic Café mean? The liner notes to this CD explain that, in contrast to the clinical coffeehouse chains of the West, the Orient is still a haven of quaint backstreet cafés and that this is the sort of music that you will hear in them. This blurb also includes the line ‘your hands wrapped around a steaming strong cup of [Arabic] coffee’: the writer clearly hasn't spent much time tangling with the finger-searing little glasses that the stuff is usually served in. Essentially, this is an interesting, if pretty random, selection of contemporary tracks from around the Middle East bunched together with a tenuous link to coffee. Among these are fine instrumental tracks from the Palestinian buzuk (long-necked, wire-strung lute) virtuoso Ramzi Aburedwan and the Algerian piano wizard Maurice El Médioni; some raqs sharki (bellydance) music led by Jalilah; and a song from the late Ali Hassan Kuban, which reminds us just how marvellous that great Nubian wedding singer was. The bonus CD from the Jordanian group Dozan is a far better reason to buy this: their innovative arrangements of Arab classics point to interesting musical developments in a country that all too rarely gets heard.