Various ‎– Time Wept - Vocal Recordings From The Levant, 1906-1925
Various ‎– Time Wept - Vocal Recordings From The Levant, 1906-1925
Various ‎– Time Wept - Vocal Recordings From The Levant, 1906-1925

Various ‎– Time Wept - Vocal Recordings From The Levant, 1906-1925

Regular price £18.00 Sale

Label: Honest Jon's Records ‎– HJRLP112
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Compilation
Country: UK
Released: 2015
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style:

Deepest dive into the stunning vocal music of the Levant from the early 20th Century by Honest Jons, with extensive liner notes on hand, more below .. (mint / new)

Stunningly beautiful, poignant music from Bilād al-Shām — ‘the countries of Damascus’, known nowadays as Syria, Lebanon and Palestine — including performances from the very first recording sessions in the region. The legendary, moody Beirut singer Būlus Ṣulbān is here — some historians have him singing before Egypt’s Pasha Ibrāhīm Bāshā during his military campaign in Syria, in 1841 — and Ḥasība Moshēh, Jewish ‘nightingale of the Damascene gardens’. Thurayyā Qaddūra from Jerusalem; Yūsuf Tāj, a folk singer from Mount-Lebanon; Farjallāh Baiḍā, cousin to the founders of Baidaphon Records… Musical directors like the lutist Qāsim Abū Jamīl al-Durzī and the violinist Anṭūn al-Shawwā (followed by his son Sāmī); such virtuosi as the qanun-players Nakhleh Ilyās al-Maṭarjī and Ya‘qūb Ghazāla, and lutist Salīm ‘Awaḍ. Even at the time, notwithstanding such brilliance, public music-making was frowned upon as morally demeaning, especially for women.

Musical venues were generally dodgy. Ṣulbān once cut short a wedding performance for the Beiruti posh, after just one song, he was so disgusted with his audience. ‘If I had to tell you about the catcalls,’ one commentator wrote about the musical theatre of the time, ‘the stomping of feet, the sound of sticks hitting the ground, the noise of the water-pipes, the teeth cracking watermelon seeds and pistachio nuts, the screams of the waiters, and the clinking of arak glasses on the tables, I would need to go on and on and on…’

Tracklist
A1 –Farjallāh Bayḍā* Yā Zēn Yallī ‘ala Qatlī
A2 –Aḥmad Al-Shaykh* Al-nafsu Ba‘d Al-‘la
A3 –Na‘īm Sem‘ān* Ḥnayyīna
A4 –Ḥikmat Ḥajjār* Yā burdāna
A5 –Būlus Ṣulbān* Kallilī Yā Suḥbu
B1 –Shaykh Ahmad Al-Yamili Khalliyānī Bi-law’atī, I & II
B2 –Basîl Al-Hajjâr* Yā Marīḍ Al-jufūn ‘adhdhabta Qalban
B3 –محي الدين بعيون Lammā Badā Yatathanna
B4 –Farjallāh Bayḍā* Laylan ṭawīlan
B5 –Būlus Ṣulbān* Mēlak ‘an El-ṣabb
C1 –Muḥammad al-‘Āshiq* Baka Al-zamān, I & II
C2 –Ḥasība Moshēh* Yilba’lik Shakk El-almās
C3 –Yūsuf Tāj* Thalāth Da''āt ‘ala El-mabsam
C4 –Farjallāh Bayḍā* Ḥawwal ẓarīf El-qadd
C5 –Aḥmad Al-Mīr* Lā Taẓunnū Lā‘iga El-wagdi
D1 –Muḥammad al-‘Āshiq* Janaytu Min Khaddihā, I & II
D2 –Iliās Shahwān* Ma‘āhum Lā, Khudhūnī
D3 –Yūsuf Al-Naḥḥāl* Anā ḥirmāni Nāẓirī
D4 –Thurayyā Qaddūra* Fatakātu laḥẓiki
D5 –Aḥmad Al-Mīr* Izzāy Bi-tihgor