CAIRO: The general perception of street performers is that they play their instruments, sing or dance for money. Whatever talent they are showing off, the performers are essentially trying to draw a big crowd and even bigger tips.
But riding the metro in the direction of Helwan one day was a nai (Arabic flute) player so immersed in his tunes that he was hardly aware of the other passengers or distracted by the clamor of the engines.
People gathered around him, mesmerized by his dreamy tunes, but he remained oblivious to their fascination with his charming melodies. With a long ponytail and stubbly beard, the piper was so entranced in his music that he only realized he had to get off at the next station when asked for an interview by Daily News Egypt.
What promised to be a short interview with a regular musician turned into an exploration of the aspirations and dreams of a multi-faceted artist: Hussein Darwish is a Sufi nai player, craftsman, calligrapher, poet and composer.
So rapt was he in his ethereal pipe performance that it felt like he had to step down from an imaginary Sufi pedestal to tell us more about his many talents.
“Yes, I am a Sufi, said Dawish. “Forget about my Sufi-styled ponytail, for rather than being an appearance, Sufism is a mood that permeates through your whole being. It is perhaps due to my Sufi tendencies that I have developed a craze for the nai and this was also why I am more comfortable with Darwish as a second name, he added.
His real last name is not Darwish, but that is how he came to be known after working for two years with a team belonging to the Fans of Sayed Darwish’s Association.
Proving to be one of the most devoted members familiar with the genius composer’s body of work earned him the name Darwish. “I was elated by the name, for the Darwsihes are one category of Sufis. Unfortunately, I had to quit the association after the fans began to Westernize Sayed Darwish’s work.
These are the same principles that stop him from commercializing his music or using it to make money by singing at weddings and in nightclubs.
Besides his many talents, Darwish carries with him a bag filled with the reeds used in handcrafting the nai, making him one of the few people who produce as well as play the nai.
“I began making pipes after the instrument I purchased a few years ago for LE 20 was no longer usable, said Darwish.
“I was shocked when a professional nai-maker asked for LE 500 for one piece. After that, I started meeting the nai makers in remote villages and buying books on the subject. Of course, my background as a copper sculptor came in handy.
“I made a number of pipes and sold them at a musical institute for LE 100. The fact that they agreed to buy them is proof of my success.
While many regard the ability to make as well as play the nai as a unique talent, Darwish says that “of all craftsmen who make instruments, only the nai-maker has to know how to play it. Otherwise, he won’t be able to make the nai.
Darwish was brought up in a musical household, but while many of his family members were musicians, he is the only piper. The nai had always been the object of his dreams. “Yes – I am not joking – the first time I played the nai was in a dream, he recalled.
At the age of nine, had a vivid dream which he did not understand until he was older. “I was in an Andalusian city and I saw singer Mohamed Qandeel dressed in the medieval Arab attire. Being a young boy, I had never seen Qandeel even though I enjoyed his music. In the dream, Qandeel could hear someone playing the nai and began looking for the source of the tunes. He finally found a boy sitting on a wooden ornamented Andalusian chair playing the nai. Do you who that boy was? Me.
Darwish’s aspirations and accomplishments are in line with his big dream. He wants to compile the first encyclopedia on the nai one day. More importantly, he aspires to become an international nai-player and present his own compositions to the world.
