A big thank you

[Najib]

A big thank you for the London Underground Union of workers!

They decided to go on strike this week for two days Wednesday and Thursday. This forced me to drive from my house in West London to Canary Wharf in East London.

Because of all the traffic I had to drive for 3 hourse each way.

Now what do you do if you're stuck in a car for 6 hours every day?

You listen to all the old 78rpm of Umm Kulthum that were issued by EMI!!

It has been years since I listened to these gems and listening to them after I learnt what I learnt from you the members of this forum is one new experience.

Umm Kulthum is fantastic in all of these recordings but what struck me was the dors of Daoud Husni especifically Kulli Ma Yizdad.

While UK is a fantastic singer with Qasabgi, Abul Ila, Najreedi, Zakaria, she is a true Shaykhah with Daoud. The recording oozes tarab and I have never heard her like this ever.

I invite all to look up kulli ma yezdad from the index and re-listen to it. It will be your opportunity to rediscover UK as a shaykhah of tarab!!!

Also the dor is a fantastic way of re-discovering Rast as the mother of all makams. The number of modulation possibilities out of this makam is endless.

[fredlag@noos.fr]

There is *nothing* that hurts me more than the fact we will never hear a live performance of Dawud Husni's adwar by Umm Kulthum. Especially since there are some rare instances recordings of the 1937 period, of Sunbati songs, and since the Husni adwar were not that far away in history : Singing kolle ma yezdad in 1940 would have been like singing Gaddedt in 1956, which is exactly what she did.

[أبو علاء]

Welcome to the club, Najib! I have voiced my extatic admiration for Dawud's 'adwar composed for 'um kalthum and has always felt I was the only one to like them so much here. kullima yizdad of course (it was the first one of them I discovered almost thirty years ago. I told you the story), but also yumi-l-hana, kunti khali, husni tab', el-bu'di 'allimni, sharraf habib, qalbi 'irif and ya fu'adi and to a lesser extent, ya 'in dumu'ik. I have to confess I'm much less enthusiastic about ruhi wiruhak and it's not difficult to guess why. By the way, kulli ma yizdad is considere a 'iraq piece and not rast, although rast colouring is predominant in it. Review the dawr carefully and you'll see that most of the qaflas but the initial one are clearly in sikah (like illi zad wagduh 'alayya).

[Najib]

Yes Mohsen it's sikah Iraq of course. I was so taken by the Rast Hank & Rank that I assumed the whole dor as Rast.

What a dor. What a performance.

[3amr]

Thanks to you, I downloaded kulli ma yizdad and heard it.

I quote: "What a dor. What a performance." (add a few exlamation marks to that).

[Hattouma]

. Especially since there are some rare instances recordings of the 1937 period, of Sunbati songs, and since the Husni adwar were not that far away in history : Singing kolle ma yezdad in 1940 would have been like singing Gaddedt in 1956, which is exactly what she did.

i am less optimistic a, i think dors and (qasida ala-wahda) have fulfilled their function for the "modern singers" by mid 30s ..the impression one gets from writings about the time ,is that their main function by the early 30s was to "test prove" the singer at the beginning of his/her career .Then he/she can embark on singing the new compositions/forms. The greatest modern singers by the opening of the official radio mid 30s were (Fathia Ahmad, Souma and Abdel Wahab) ,only Saleh Abdel-Hay was left to continue this task of singing dor's ,qasayyed..etc. it is a bit strange how Husni's dors for souma (and most of zakaria's ) did not even get incorporated in any the typical repertoire of dors ..it is like they were sung only in the records and maybe few private sessions with some pasha's :) .

thanks Najib ,you made us listen to it again , the CDA cd starting with husn tab' elli fatani followed by "kull ma-yezdaad" is just wonderful.

[أبو علاء]

Thanks to you, I downloaded kulli ma yizdad and heard it.

I quote: "What a dor. What a performance." (add a few exlamation marks to that).

Then you should do the same with kunti khali and yumi-l-hana as a matter of urgency.