Wust El-Balad fuses jazz, rock, and oriental music into a mélange dubbed as “Downtown. Yet even Cairo’s ‘heart of town’ paled in comparison to the Orchestre National de Barbès in bringing out Cairo’s spirit last Tuesday at the annual Fête de la Musique (Music Festival), held at the Saladin Citadel.
In its 27th year, the worldwide music fest was celebrated this year in Egypt with the local band Wust El-Balad and the French visiting group Orchestre Nationale de Barbès (ONB). The concert was organized by the Centre Francais de Culture & Cooperation (CFCC), the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the Cairo Opera House, and the Cultural Development Foundation.
The Citadel and its mosque are lit in welcome. You are greeted by the evening breeze and a queue that you hear has begun as early as 7pm.Walking to the venue visitors stop to take pictures of the breathtaking mosque, with lights accentuating its latticed windows.
As soon as you enter, the sound of music immediately hits you. You can see Wust El-Balad from stage right. The view from upstage shows a chockfull of hands clapping and people swaying to the music.
You station yourself stage left and take in the music and the sights. Wust El Balad’s lead singer and tabla play with the crowd, “Which song do you want?
“Antikaaaaaaaa! any other song request is clearly drowned out.
Compared to their other dos, Wust El-Balad’s performance was fairly forgettable.
The ONB takes over. A figure in white gallabeya and turban floats across the stage carrying a saxophone. Already there is cheering.
The costumes of the band that takes over seem a courtesy to the venue, but in fact the band members hail from a Parisian enclave of Middle-Eastern and African communities. It is this quarter of Barbès that they have adopted as a nation, carrying its music with leader Youcef Boukella, with them since 1995.
Their output is not only enriched by varied musical influences – if only simply in the variety of instruments they use – but also informed by their shared history of colonization, and of the struggles of integration. Yet this mix is delivered in a manner that is confident and natural; with a fluency earned with difficulty from the confluence of many languages.
The band members have features that are not quite Middle-Eastern, but some speak – nay, even sing – fluent Arabic.
You maneuver yourself around stage scaffolding, greedy to get a better view from among the options available. Pliant to the jostling, the crowd lets you move around and take pictures. People clap all around, and the music moves them in different ways.
“They made a very good mixture, says audience member Abeer Shah, “They are smart also in mixing the locally familiar tunes with French tunes.
Starting with Arabic songs like “Salamaikum and “Beaouna (“They Sold Us ), the band kicked off their performance with reggae beats and percussions that blended well with an Arab flute instrument.
Amid the Moroccan and Algerian mix, French was cleverly inserted, including the French national anthem, which they tweaked with considerable irony. The lyrics said “Humiliation, ca va! Arabisation, ca va! and then with “Ca ne va pas du tout! (“It won’t do at all! ).
One of the lead singers orchestrated the audience, throwing his hand out, so that audiences would join with a clap or a call, “Go! or “Salamaleikum!
“Beaouna spoke of betrayal, yet with music that encouraged you to move with its waves; the Arabic letter ayn, and the band’s heritage, remained well-articulated.
Barbès’ gig ended with Rai renditions, and veiled women near the stage were seen curving and sashaying to the music.
From the hijabis to the hippies, the Citadel was home to every audience, and for one evening, the Citadel became a French quarter with a mix of all sorts. As is intended at any festival, music is the glue that binds it all together.
Wust El Balad’s website can be visited at www.myspace.com/wustelbalad. For more information on ONB, visit www.myspace.com/orchestrenationaldebarbes/.
