Genuine art still alive on Mohamed Ali St.

Ashraf Sadek

Cairo

Their musical instruments are their passport to any happy occasion whether it is a wedding party, or a birthday party that you throw at home, or in the street.

Qahwat El-Fin, or the Art’s Café, is the meeting place in Mohamed Ali Street, which runs from Attaba Square to the Cairo Citadel. At this café, one can hire third class musicians, vocalists, or belly dancers to entertain the guests of his or her party or reunion.

“The street and its artists, clients and residents have changed a great deal over the past 40 years or so,” laments Hassan Anwar, a lute (oud) player, who has been a nightly customer of this famous café since he joined the entertainment trade in the mid sixties.

Anwar, who refused to say how much he makes from playing the oud per night in a down town bar, is a key member of the Arabic takht (musical band), which comprises a drummer, a flutist, a qanun player, and a violinist.

This small band usually plays behind a male or female singer at a chic café house, or during special or social functions, which are being held at home by a limited number of families these days.

“There are some good old families, whose members still love and appreciate the genuine Oriental music and invite me to entertain them and their guests,” Anwar, a father of three daughters, says.

In these private occasions, he said, the house owners and their guests request the band to play and sing the great songs of the legendary Egyptian artists like Om Kalthoum, Mohamed Abdul Wahab, Farid el-Attrash, Mohamed Fawzi, Abdul Halim Hafez, Mohamed Abdul Motalib, Karim Mahmoud, Abdul Aziz Mahmoud, Mohamed Qandeel, Mohamed Rushdi,  Faiza Ahmed, Shadia, and Laila Murad.

Anwar said that these singers are oldies but goldies, and no true musician or a good listener gets fed up with playing or listening to their songs especially Om Kalthoum, who is popularly known as Souma, el-Sitt (Arabic for the lady), or the Planet of the East.

Unlike today’s singers, these God-gifted artists sang of love and sorrow with their magical voices that educated the people and made them cry with joy at the same time, he said.

Like in any profession, there are good artists and bad ones, Anwar says, adding that many of his junior colleagues are not talented or trained enough thanks to the modern gadgets such as the digital microphones and the electronic musical instruments.

These devices cover up their mediocre performance and coarse voices, which are harmful to the ear and only fit for microbuses and cabarets of al-Haram Street, or the old Alfi Street of downtown Cairo, said Anwar, who named his out Sawsan after his late wife.

“Sawsan is my true friend and solace after my wife died five years ago,” Anwar said, adding that he takes up a job once every blue moon.

Weddings and parties are run by DJs because the families cannot afford hiring musicians or singers because of the present economic hardships, he said.

Anwar laments the fact that many Egyptians down grade artists, whom they erroneously believe that they are loose and deviant people.

“To some extent, the people are right and wrong at the same time about this matter. They are right because the profession has been invaded by many irresponsible intruders, who make a very bad general impression about its genuine members because they do nothing but shouting or taking off half of their clothes while performing especially in the wedding parties of the balaadi people.

“In the meantime, the people are wrong about the artists because they pick up a bad sector of the profession and generalize it on the whole members of the business,” he explained. He also blamed the local media for giving a bad image about the musicians and artists.

The entertainment business has been plagued by no-nothings, semi-artists, amatures and ‘semi-nude belly dancers’, who give a bad reputation to all members of the trade, which lacks organization, Anwar said, adding that he would never allow his daughters to work with him.

“Although they have good voices, I would never allow them to join the entertainment business for the time being,” he said.