By Chitra Kalyani
It’s the perfect weather for hommos el-sham along the Nile. The Egyptian delicacy keeps you warm while music issuing from the Sawy Culture Wheel warms the heart.
They say music knows no boundaries and, we add, jazz knows even fewer. Entire heritages and legacies of notes coalesced and musicians and audience too intermingled on the second night of revelry at the Cairo Jazz Fest. Sax stole the night.
The music for the evening started with Syrian Basel Rajjoub accompanying the Ahmed Nazmi trio on his saxophone. Yet the show was stolen by Dutch act Artvark, a jazz quartet that does not simply play, but performs the music.
The sound of Rajjoub’s saxophone rose up like a layali, a ubiquitous refrain to the night in classical Arabic songs. Ahmed Nazmi played the guitar drawing out a blend of notes reminiscent of an Indian sitar; his influences, as promised, were varied and well-infused, and formed a unique and enjoyable sound that was easy on the ears.
Nazmi was patient with his melody, drawing his partner on drums, Ahmed Hesham, into a dialogue in a piece called “Conversation with Myself.” Although instrumental, the music was well understood by the crowd; they seemed to have a taste and an ear for the music.
Four years ago, the jazz fest aimed to introduce a wider audience to this little-known genre. Jazz was previously known and enjoyed by a niche crowd in Egypt for as long as percussionist Yehia Khalil — Egypt’s first jazz success — has been around.
With jazz documentaries being screened and well-attended, and jazz workshops in saxophone — an emerging market — conducted, festival director Amro Salah, who told Daily News Egypt about the festival’s goal of educating the people about jazz, should check that one off this year’s list.
Faces from the underground music scene were featured on mini-posters at the festival, celebrating the spirit of music, not jazz alone. Coinciding with 10 years of underground music, Eftekasat also celebrated their 10-year anniversary at this fest.
Eftekasat opened the show to a full house, with some band members sporting kurtas, a long traditional Indian shirt. Well-crafted sounds issued from the band — both in their solos, and as a team. A fast-paced dialogue ensued between violinist Mohamed Medhat and guitarist Ousso, who repeated each other’s rhythms on their instruments. The band’s music was informed by its travels together.
Layth Soliman’s nay also carried sounds back from India, where Salah said the band had had a recent visit. “Life in Serbia” was a remembrance of a time the band had enjoyed in the country. The sounds were simple and sweet, almost naïve. An audience member hooted for an encore, but his cries went unheard.
Not so with Dutch act Artvark who were yelled back into performing a final number for the appreciative crowds. In this saxophone-only band, Artvark found not one but four Pied Pipers, equally able to win over crowds. Literally from their first step, the band was different from all others. Rather than start with an arrangement, the band walked on to the stage one by one and stood in an arrangement that suited the tone of their music.
The band snapped and tapped onstage, turning their movements and sound into a dance. All suited-up for their appearance, the quartet gave off an unmatched air of elegance and charm, which made their music a sight to be heard.
Artvark introduced their songs with names of boyish panache that made them sound like they had invented them to impress a girl. Surely enough, one of the songs introduced “a woman that he loves and has lost, although he has had many women, this one is special,” or some such banter.
The band that raised their horns like elephant trunks made the audience a little nervous when they requested the sound person to “raise the volume” a little. “It’s a short piece,” they said as if to comfort the audience, and then, took one long audible breath. A percussion piece followed, where the band tapped the saxes with their fingers, and the floor with their feet. It was breathtaking.
Joined by Ahmed Nazmi and Ahmed Hesham, Artvark also performed what they called an “African act” in three parts. Moving around to their arrangements, the band politely gathered around the bassist and drummer to share their limelight and applause from an audience which had already been won over. Artvark’s penultimate act, based on John Coltrane music, was a piece called “Trainhopping.”
For a moment it seemed that audience calls for an encore were in vain, but those that gave their voice up to win the band back were well rewarded. For their final number, the band stepped into the crowd and the audience shared the music and the performance like never before. If it can be said for jazz players, they rocked the house.
You can start warming up with hommos el-sham, but to keep up the heat, you might want to try that thing called jazz.
Eftekasat celebrated their 10-year anniversary at this Jazz Fest.
