Burning Dervish

I have not finished trading presents with everyone on my list but I did get a couple of CD gems already, the first of which I am posting an MP3 from...

My first experience with Simon Shaheen was his 1991 CD of the music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab, one of the most important songwriters and musicians in modern Middle Eastern music. Several years later I managed to catch him live at a festival on the Yale campus where he both performed and spoke, discussing the oud, his own musical upbringing and the music of Persia and Arabia. I was somewhat disappointed by his Blue Flame CD, initially thinking it was a total pandering to the NPR crowd, though it has grown on me over the years (as I have joined the NPR crowd, perhaps...).

The disc I received the other day, though, was one I somehow missed out on when it first came out. It is more traditional, in the spirit of his Mohamed Abdel Wahab release and while I am still digging into it, I wanted to post this one MP3 for you. I am sure more tracks from the CD will surface on my mixes in 2007. Enjoy.

Simon Shaheen: Sama'i Farahfaza
from Turath: Masterworks of the Middle East