privately preview the album at link https://bandcamp.com/private/HT8TY3MH
Album Release Concerts
On their debut full-length album, Saba, The Arab Blues growl and romp their way through original Arabic themes and arrangements in the blues traditions of Chicago, Mississippi, and Mali. Drawing from their acoustic and electric repertoire, the album reflects the anger, protest, and dislocation of our cultural moment. On the lead track, ‘Black Saba’, Rami Gabriel and Karim Nagi mine hard rock and maqam traditions. It serves as an introduction to their interleaving of a heavy metal riff with the 14/4 meter Andalusian song, Munyati Azz Astibar on ‘Sweet Munyati’. The Arab Blues continue to re-cast the work of Egyptian composers. The epic centerpiece of the album, aunique arrangement of the Baligh Hamdi composition ‘Fakarouny’ showcases their dynamic range, while rhythm and blues suffuses their interpretation of the Abdel Halim Hafiz hit, ‘Ahwak’. In addition to integrating modern Western idioms, Saba equally explores Arab-African connections in ‘Farka’, adesert blues ode to the Sahel, and their homage to the Maghrebin ‘Maghroud’. In the hands of The Arab Blues, traditional forms such as the Sama’i (‘Sama’i Kurd guitari’) and Levantine folk music (‘Golan’) are transformed into electrifying journeys.On Saba, an Egyptian and a Lebanese musician make a definitive statement of their sound crafted in Chicago. Forged in the diaspora, this sound bellows freedom, longing, and defiance.
