Folk and African Music in Cairo

Last night, I was on my own, as everyone I knew was busy with other things; going to a reggae concert, an "oonts oonts oonts oonts" dance club, etc...

So, following some of the many ways that information is circulated in and around Cairo, I found a posting about an ensemble group called "Mazaher" at a typical local art-scene place; a converted shop which had been turned into a makeshift concert hall. I did not know much about the music they'd be playing and thought that the quick walk through the streets of Cairo would be worth the 20 Egyptian Pounds (LE) just to be out of the apartment. As I walked up, there were men and women (all older than I) sitting around the entrance to the building, hovering over their instruments, but friendly when greeted with "Salaam Aleykum" (Sal - AAm - A - lay - koom, meaning "Peace be upon you"). Entering the place, paying my 20LE at the door, I walked into a dimly lit, two story room with rugs lying thick upon the floor, chairs, stools, and cushions (since I was an "Ustaaz" or well-to-do gentleman, I was ushered to a chair, offered tea or coffee, and waited as the room began to fill...and fill....and fill. Soon the room was crowded, with standing room only. Later entrants sitting on stools, cushions, and leaning against walls, crowding the open-air stairs to the second floor...

The music I was about to hear is called Zar, and I feel it best to give you the official blurb about it:

"ZAR is a community healing ritual of drumming and dancing whose tradition is carried mainly by women (men have the secondary roles) and whose main participants are women. The ZAR is said to have originated in East Africa and, although its practice is disappearing in Egypt, the ritual flourishes in other parts of East Africa and the Arabian peninsula. The ritual has been misperceived as a form of exorcism. However, the aim of ZAR is to harmonize the inner lives of the participants. As well as drawing women who are seriously ill, the ZAR is a space in which women can work out the tensions and frustrations of social constraints which limit their movements, their dress, their voices, and even their dreams. Communication with unseen spirits is driven by insistent and varied drum rhythms and by energetic movements of the participants in an intense rhythmic interaction which can lead to an altered state of consciousness and, even, trance. The experience can be cathartic, a physical and spiritual purification that leaves one calm and ready to face the world again." The music is captivating, and very much akin to a cross between Southern Baptist, East African drumming, and a little Islamic prayer. What you hear is the lead singer slowly joined by other singers and drums. She wavers her voice between two keys, hit both almost simultaneously and she does it without the hackneyed jaw-wagging or such that some singers will do to achieve similar, if lesser, results. The result is she sings in two different keys working in parallel, as if there were two singers.The concert is engaging, mostly because between songs, the singers banter with the crowd, trading jokes and the like. By the end, the music is mesmerizing and many people, men and women, Egyptian and foreigner, are dancing and swaying to it. It was the best $4.00 I ever spent in my life.