Daily Planet

On her latest CD, Ana Hina, Natacha Atlas leaves her own Arabic/Dance music fusions for her own interpretations of some Middle Eastern pop songs that blended East and West fifty years ago.

With the all-acoustic band The Mazeeka Ensemble, directed by guitarist/pianist Harvey Brough, she interprets songs by the superstars, Lebanese singer Fairouz and Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez. She evokes the exciting spirit of Cairo in the ’Fifties and ’Sixties - a place where composers and arrangers changed Arabic popular music by introducing Western elements - harmony, orchestral strings, big band swing and electric guitars. She also includes a Nina Simone-influenced version of Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair and some original compositions - a song about insomnia personified with a Stravinsky-influenced arrangement, and one about a hesitating soldier.

Playlist

1421
Innuendo Out The Other
Philip DeGruy
Degruy-Gruy Music
NYC 6013 2 (US Import)
Philip DeGruy, Innuendo Out The Other
15 seconds (excerpt)
(solo 17-string elec guitar, fingerstyle; v quirky, virtuosic & humorous, more or less a bent-boogie)

1422
CD Cut 2 - 'Beny Ou Benak Eili' (What's Between Me and You? I Wish You'd Tell Me')
Kamal al Taweel and Mamoun al Shinnawy, arranged by Harvey Brough
Pub Not Spec
World Village 45005 468074 ( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
worldwide: www.worldvillagemusic.com )
Natacha Atlas and the Mazeeka Ensemble - 'Ana Hina'
4:10
(Big, fun production with rhythm section and strings that evokes the Egyptian popular orchestras of the 1950s as they were absorbing Western influences and techniques.)

Segue

1426
CD Cut 4 - 'Kunt Fein' (Where Are You?)
Hussein El Sayed and Mohamed Abdel Wahab
Sout E phan Cairo/EMI Music Arabia
Hemisphere 7243 5 24341 21 (through EMI)
Various - 'The Story of Arabic Song'
5:12
(Abdel Halim Hafez sings with backing vocals and brightly punctuating string orchestra)

1434
CD Cut 4 - 'La Shou El Haki' (Why the Need to Talk?)
Rahbani Brothers, arranged by Harvey Brough
Pub Not Spec
World Village 45005 468074 ( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
worldwide: www.worldvillagemusic.com )
Natacha Atlas and the Mazeeka Ensemble - 'Ana Hina'
3:18
(Bright, fun arrangement with string orchestra and driving piano in song that says 'Why the need for words when the stars and the moon can describe our love?')

Segue

1437
CD Cut 3 - 'Khayef Aqool Elli Fi Albi'
Ahmed Abdel Magid/Mohamed Abdel Wahab
Sout E phan Cairo/EMI Music Arabia
Hemisphere 7243 5 24341 21 (through EMI)
Various - 'The Story of Arabic Song'
3:58
(Fairouz' voise with arrangement by the Rahbani Brothers, with backing vocals and strings and electric organ contrasting with the micro-tuned oud and accordion)

1443
CD Cut 4 - 'Can I Smoke In Here?'
Ry Cooder
Hi-Lo Shag Music BMI
Nonesuch 7559-79900-5 ( if issued in Australia, through Warner Music: www.warnermusic.com.au
worldwide: www.nonesuch.com )
Ry Cooder - 'I, Flathead: The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns'
Fades to 4:18
(Guitar and percussion and Ry's vaguely bossa nova electric guitar accompany his surrealistic spoken word piece in the voice of ageing country singer Kash Buk talking in a bar room.)

Segue

1447
CD Cut 12 - 'El Nowm' (The Sleep)
Natacha Atlas and Harvey Brough, arr by Harvey Brough
Annie Reed Publishing
World Village 45005 468074 ( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
worldwide: www.worldvillagemusic.com )
Natacha Atlas and the Mazeeka Ensemble - 'Ana Hina'
5:48
(Dreamlike piece with string arrangement influenced by Stravinsky via Ziad Moultaka, a song to a lover who used to share all her dreams who has left now and said 'I have no place in your nights.' The lover's name was 'sleep')

Segue

1452
CD Cut 1 - 'Kyrie Elieson'
Achilles Yiangoulii, Nick Tsiavos, Anthony Schulz (Improvisation, Based On A Trad Byzantine Chant/Prayer)
ANAN 006
( www.anankemusic.com
The trio's CDs are available worldwide via www.indie-cds.com )
Ananke - 'Maps For Losing Oneself'
3:38
(Austral Comp And Perf: An unusual instrumental trio: improvising on an ancient hymn/prayer. 'Ananke' means 'necessity' in Greek. Achilles Yiangoulli plays the bouzouki, Nick Tsiavos is the double-bassist, Anthony Schulz the accordionist.

ANANKE CD LAUNCH CONCERT ALERT (Melbourne)

Monday 18th August @ 8.00 pm
LaMama
Faraday St Carlton
enq: 0403 602 067 )

1457
CD Cut 10 - 'Lammebada'
Trad, arr Harvey Brough
Pub Not Spec
World Village 45005 468074 ( in Australia through Select Audio-Visual Distribution:
www.savd.com.au
worldwide: www.worldvillagemusic.com )
Natacha Atlas and the Mazeeka Ensemble - 'Ana Hina'
Two minute excerpt
(Adaptation of an ancient Mwashah - a classical Arabic piece for teaching singing, dating back to at least 1492. Features accordion, ney, percussion and oud. Natacha sings, 'My beloved's beauty drives me to distraction.')

Presenter

Lucky Oceans

Producer

Lucky Oceans