Relationship of accompaniment to vocal line is quite different in places. 22:25-22:40. Those heavy flourishes from the accompaniment. Sounds odd to me. Anyway, I've never noticed any live versions that stick to that. Maybe it's there and I just haven't noticed. But it almost has to be more subtle if it hasn't jumped out in the same way, so it would still be different to a degree.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 23 February 2017 04:54 (seven years ago) link
Odd how there is a slow instrumental conclusion to the performance. In live performance the real ending is always with her last climactic vocal closure.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 23 February 2017 05:09 (seven years ago) link
A very strong Shams El Aseel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DPcKB0TKx0
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 2 April 2017 04:03 (seven years ago) link
One of the best songs written for her in the 60s, Aqolak Eh An El Shouq:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwzuiAM_L_w
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 May 2017 02:54 (seven years ago) link
Longer than the standard recording, and I'm pretty sure it's from a different concert. Some of the ornamentation on the lead violin's lines in the beginning isn't there in this one, if I'm not mistaken. I should know for sure, but it's not something I've listened to all that recently.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 May 2017 02:56 (seven years ago) link
Takes her accompaniment a long time to realize she is going to repeat the verses she just sang, rather than move on, at: 5:47. Maybe her kanunist missed a cue.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 May 2017 23:15 (seven years ago) link
"Ela Arafat Allah," in a similar style as Nahj el Borda and Oulida al Hoda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0agcHiUkU4
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 May 2017 00:26 (seven years ago) link
Youtube is placing an add in the middle. Man, is that annoying. I am hoping that will go away if I play as embedded video.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 26 May 2017 00:27 (seven years ago) link
"Ela Arafat Allah" is so good.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 29 May 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
Kinda bugs me, that with her deserved fame, her name is still "mother of Kalthoum". Her birthname, btw, is Fātimah ʾIbrāhīm as-Sayyid al-Biltāǧī.
― it's just locker room treason (Sanpaku), Monday, 29 May 2017 16:36 (seven years ago) link
I guess you know that Umm Kulthum was one of the companions of the Prophet, so it's got a certain cachet in that cultural context.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 29 May 2017 23:23 (seven years ago) link
I don't know the history of how the subject of this thread ended up with that name though. I don't remember if I've ever read an explanation.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 29 May 2017 23:24 (seven years ago) link
I can also see how the name's background doesn't necessarily make it any less annoying that her name is mother of somebody or other.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 01:34 (seven years ago) link
40s and 50s songs are generally so much better. There are a few exceptions, but really just a few as far as I'm concerned. *eating a handful of Ajwa dates*
I love that Spotify has a bunch of her "singles" in chronological order now. There are some difficult songs with difficult titles that I've always had trouble keeping track of. This helps.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 03:57 (seven years ago) link
I mean, a lot of the later material has fantastic and memorable melodies but the songs don't work as well as vehicles for her singing.
― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 04:03 (seven years ago) link
"taking a [vocal] line out for a walk"
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 10 June 2017 21:53 (seven years ago) link
Another Saturday with El Sett, coming later, once I'm more awake.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 17 June 2017 16:31 (seven years ago) link
If the single-digit humidity doesn't kill me.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 17 June 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
I made an Oum Kalthoum playlist. Nothing special, just my favorite songs as available on Spotify. (There are some crucial, commercially available live recordings missing from Spotify.)
https://open.spotify.com/user/rudipherousoxide/playlist/57PCJ9HMDzgJ4YnVb6yYHb
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 25 June 2017 15:14 (six years ago) link
I actually feel guilty it's so short, but I was being very selective. I might add some later songs eventually. If they had a good live Hazihi Leylati. . . Or maybe if they had the studio Inta Omri. . . The beginning of Baid Anak is stunning, but I do think it goes on too long, with too many audience-demanded repetitions of sections that don't actually help.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 25 June 2017 15:19 (six years ago) link
I haven't watched this yet, but the introduction alone is mind-blowing. Nasser arrives with his security detail/entourage, at one point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md0utlaK6Gs
Domtek is either a great new channel or one I had missed previously.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 3 December 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
I don't really love Amal Hayati though.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 4 December 2017 00:22 (six years ago) link
A very fast-tempoed Howwa Sahih that I don't think I've heard before. Definitely have not seen before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReVC__gtU-M
That's more like it.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 4 December 2017 02:26 (six years ago) link
(Abdel Wahab songs so overrated. Sorry to be a broken record.)
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 4 December 2017 02:29 (six years ago) link
I think Oum Kalthoum audiences might be my favorite audience. Another Nasser siting at the end of the video above, incidentally. Unfortunately, there's a glitch in the middle and the sound drops out.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 4 December 2017 18:11 (six years ago) link
Also, the seriousness of the announcers is great.
Howwa Sahih really has Zakariya Ahmed written all over it.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 6 January 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
Patience has its limits, indeed.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 8 January 2018 23:30 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwJQV_smUwM
Have we realized yet how perfect this is?
― How do I feel a complaint? (_Rudipherous_), Saturday, 13 January 2018 17:40 (six years ago) link
Did not realize till the other night that there’s a song in the Tony Award winning musical, The Band’s Visit, called “”Oum Kulthum and Omar Sharif.” One of the stars of the show who sang it on the Tonys, gave a shoutout when she won an award, to the late Kulthum.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 04:07 (six years ago) link
Anyone seen 'Looking for Oum Kulthum'? I wasn't that big of a fan, Shirin Neshat makes it into a meta-movie that is to a large part about herself, but the recreations of scenes from Kulthums career are really good.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 11:51 (six years ago) link
Haven’t seen it.
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link
Hello Rudipherous and anyone else who can be of help.
I've got a note that I should start investigating Umm Kulthum at this point, but not sure where to start. What I need is a reasonably-sized (say 2CD) retrospective covering her whole recording career, and (very important!) dates of recording for each track. Does such a thing exist?
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 12:42 (five years ago) link
I missed Frederik asking who else had seen the film, but I didn't like it very much either for the same meta reasons as he did. An actual biography would have been nice.
― Elitist cheese photos (aldo), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 13:59 (five years ago) link
From what I remember, trying to find decent cds is a total crapshoot if not outright impossible not knowing arabic. I ended up buying MP3s and finding random downloads mostly for my collection, which by the time I gave up searching ran about 12-15 acceptable recordings which deliver the goods (and I think 3 of them I have on cd, all excellent, and all by the same label with colorful arabesque artwork and no liner notes or recording info.) I still listen to her sometimes, her work remains interesting over time. IMO the sweet spot is any given live recording from 1950s through maybe mid-60s that runs 30-50 minutes. That stuff is invariably sublime though also invariably lo fi. Later recordings from the 70s are slicker and sound really good and hi fi but are completely ruined for this somewhat discerning listener by goofy sounding harmonium and sometimes electric surf-guitar sounding oud (or some kind of twangy electric stringed non-guitar anyway). The surf-oud and harmonium isn't part of the sonic equation earlier thankfully!!! The mid-period (I guess) longform live stuff I dig is all violins/cellos and percussion, and thoroughly righteous.
Early period for me is the studio stuff, very short tunes for 45rpm of little interest, and later would be the gross harmonium live recordings.
― liam fennell, Wednesday, 10 April 2019 17:01 (five years ago) link
Thanks for the tips Liam, and
my collection, which by the time I gave up searching ran about 12-15 acceptable recordings which deliver the goods
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 17:08 (five years ago) link
Sure, check back here in a day or so. If you want I'll try to email you all of them as onedrive links. They're all different tunes, each performance its own long mp3, and I think all essentially radio bootlegs anyway because that's how this stuff was originally disseminated.
I just searched Oum Kalthoum blog and re-found the first tune/download of hers I listened to extensively, Esal Rouhak, and the download link is still active somehow! It's a pretty awesome performance and tune, and the rest I treasure are along these lines, so give it a shot:
http://www.eatbees.com/blog/2006/12/02/esal-rouhak/
― liam fennell, Thursday, 11 April 2019 12:15 (five years ago) link
That would be brilliant, thanks!
Checking this one out now - this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Kulthum#Selected_discography - says it's from 1970, which is very late indeed.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 11 April 2019 21:40 (five years ago) link
Listened to this last night, really good thanks, I didn't realise the length of the tracks was because each one was like an album and with so much drama and variety.
The previous thing I had was a 1924 recording which isn't really up to scratch, even for 1924, so good to get it now.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 12 April 2019 09:30 (five years ago) link
Cool, you're welcome! Yeah, I guess that's what I mean by the goods; the songs when she was exclusively a live performer are all like miniature operas or something, long sonic tapestries that unfold and develop one or two simple ideas. There's always some really neat musical motives that gets put through a ton of variations and which she ornaments and illuminates with her voice. She's kind of a force of nature, really!
I just sent an email to the address connected to your profile with a onedrive download link to a folder with all the ones I have, including the later ones which I dislike solely because of some questionable instrumentation choices. As for the later ones, the tunes are still good, and the quality isn't hazy at all, it's very crisp/clear. You might dig them more than me, so!
― liam fennell, Friday, 12 April 2019 12:51 (five years ago) link
Thought of this thread tonight as I saw the play “The Band’s Visit” and the Israeli woman cafe owner sang a song called “Oum Kalthoum and Omar Sharif” and she and the Alexandria, Egypt Band leader quoted Sharif movie lines. The cafe owner mentioned grownup and hearing Kalthoum songs on the radio
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 July 2022 01:59 (one year ago) link
Growing up
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 July 2022 02:00 (one year ago) link
My knowledge of Oum Kathoum music remains very superficial. Need to remedy that sometime
― curmudgeon, Monday, 18 July 2022 13:04 (one year ago) link
Anyone know anything about this upcoming batch of LPs? Dunno if I'm in a position to buy them all, but they look pretty tempting:
https://lightintheattic.net/releases/8965-alf-leila-wa-leilahttps://lightintheattic.net/releases/8966-el-hob-kollohttps://lightintheattic.net/releases/8967-enta-omrihttps://lightintheattic.net/releases/8968-laylat-hob
― Paul Ponzi, Sunday, 28 August 2022 13:28 (one year ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/wexnercenter/esra-canogullari-8ulentinaand-lara-sarkissian-umm-al-atlal
UMM / AL ATLAL is a collaborative sound piece composed by Esra Canoğulları and Lara Sarkissian. This hour-long piece deconstructs and abstracts a live performance of Umm Kulthum's song Al Atlal. Umm Kultum was known for live performances that lasted hours, with individual songs lasting up to an hour each, the crowd participation playing an essential role in these durational and enchanting live shows. UMM / AL ATLAL takes a similar approach to abstraction as Sahar’s sculptural radio tower- isolating and embedding individual lyrics while reinterpreting their form. The collaborative nature of this sound sculpture is our contemporary version of the audience call and response participation that is present in all of Umm Kulthum’s live performances.
Esra Canoğulları (8ULENTINA)and Lara Sarkissian: UMM / AL ATLAL By wexnercenter is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
piece goes along with this exhibit- https://wexarts.org/exhibitions/sahar-khoury-umm
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 28 December 2023 04:36 (five months ago) link