CAIRO: Arabic black and white movie Sharea El Hob, (Street of Love) first introduced Hassaballah the 16th and his music band to viewers in 1958 as a poor trumpeter who is doing the impossible to help his friend rise to stardom.
Played by Abdel Salam El Nabolsy, Hassaballah was the movie s comedic element, which led viewers to only think of his character as mere fiction.
Viewing the movie time and again, some wouldn’t imagine that this Hassaballah is a real character that lived during the royal regime.
He was one of few artists to receive the title ‘Pasha’ when other great actors and composers could only aspire to get that of a ‘Beik.
Back in the day, very few people could afford to hire Hassaballah and his band. Their presence in any event was a sign of wealth.
The band s history is kept alive through stories told by Hassanein Mostafa, one of six members who outlived 36 musicians that made up Hassaballah’s band.
You can run into the trumpeter at any old coffee shop on Mohamed Ali Street. He’s a lively figure that, despite his old age, continues to retain memories, anecdotes and notes on life and art that can be triggered merely with a question. “Hassaballah the 16th? No, this is nonsense, said Mostafa. “There is nobody called Hassaballah the 16th, but people tend to believe he’s a real character after they watched the movie [Street of Love].
“There were only two Hassaballah(s), but because both men and their children have been able to keep the band alive for over a century, many began to think that everyone who headed the band was called Hassaballah, explained the trumpeter.
Hassaballah was born in 1879 to a simple family, explained Mostafa. He learnt how to play the trumpet at the police academy’s band. To earn his living, he formed a small band and began to specialize in performing the rowdy music in the ‘zaffa’ (wedding procession).
But his son, Hassaballah the Second, was the one who gave the band its name and spread its reputation countrywide. On one of late king Farouk’s birthday parties that was organized at the Al Ahram Auberge, the attendees were in for a surprise.
After Hassaballah had sold the family’s house for LE 150, he purchased silk and gold-embroidered costumes for his band and crashed the party, much to the amazement and pleasure of the king and other dignitaries who were amused by the beating of drums and clamor of trumpets.
Since then Hassaballah was able to penetrate the palace’s exclusive circle and was seen later at all royal weddings and official ceremonies that required that kind of music.
For Mostafa, then 14 years old, it was more than an aspiration to join the Hassaballah band. “As a young boy, I was very mischievous, recalled Mostafa. “So my parents sent me to the Royal School for Music, where I received training to become a trumpeter. But I got tired of the school routine, so I fled to Mohamed Ali Street and joined the Hassaballah band.
Having spent some 45 years in this profession, Mostafa is hired by people from all social classes. “This is simply because, irrespective of their classes, all these still organize wedding parties, he notes.
Mostafa is proud that – along with his band – he was hired to perform at the weddings of late presidents Nasser s and Sadat s daughters.
One of Hassaballah s most memorable gigs was a zaffa that went on for several hours. The band boarded a big boat that was followed by eight others. The boats were loaded with the couple’s furniture and relatives. It was one zaffa I had never seen in my entire life, he said.
“Another time it was unfortunate, for during the zaffa the groom was driving the truck on which the furniture was loaded and crashed into another car and was injured, he added.
Mostafa refuses to refer to the trumpet as ‘nefir,’ the Arabic translation of the word. He insists on calling it ‘trompa,’ the Italian word of the instrument’s name.
He has traveled far and wide with theatrical groups giving performances in Europe and the US. He has also participated in heritage festivals worldwide and takes pride in the fact that the Hassaballah band is part and parcel of the Egyptian musical tradition.
Having laid the basis for the art, Hassaballah’s band has made history. “The new generations can’t master the art the same way we did. But there will always be weddings, zaffas and bands. Life has to go on.
