Bedouin Tribal Dance

Ramzy, Hossam – Bedouin Tribal Dance
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/1/07
Traditional wedding/celebration music of the Egyptian Bedouins, as presented by the prolific musical chronicler Hossam Ramzy. Apparently the instruments consist of three horns, perhaps akin to the ney, with a drone (so almost all songs are like bagpipe tunes – if you can’t stand the sound of bagpipes, you probably won’t enjoy this!) and lots of hand drums. There are a male and a female singer, although most songs are instrumentals.
No FCCs – all in Arabic. Most sound frankly quite similar – I guess I like 10 best just because it’s a duet, which adds interest.
1. **Bagpipe-like horn solo, then downtempo percussion and horns – very sinuous instrumental.
2. **Similar instrumentation, but quite uptempo. Female vocals come in quite a ways along, call and response
3. **very familiar midtempo Egyptian-style bellydance beat, more horns, instrumental.
4. **similar beat but downtempo. Male vocals.
5. **slow and rather mournful-sounding horn intro, slow handdrum beat after 40 seconds, instrumental
6. ***drone/horn intro, then uptempo instrumental romp – conjures up a circle-dance-til-you-drop party.
7. **uptempo with some syncopation, female vocals.
8. **uptempo, male vocals
9. ***horn intro, then quite uptempo dance instrumental.
10. ***uptempo with lots of showy hand drum work, pleasant vocals, both male and female, love song.