Cairo Tapes: Egyptian Shaabi – Abdo El-Iskandarani.
More of Cairo Tapes
in this episode, more urban folk music (Shaabi) from Cairo, Egypt. Cassette tapes featuring this music were particularly popular between the 1970s and 1990s. You can listen to more of this series here, here, and here.
We”ll listen to Abdou El-Eskanderani, a master of the folk Mawwal (maouaal). He was active in the mid 1980s and 1990s, just a generation later than the famous great Ahmed Adaweya.
The mawwal is a traditional, improvised song form with lyrics full of life wisdom and a play on homonyms. This “bluesy” form offers the singer and soloists the opportunity to improvise and fully demonstrate their musical talents. The urban folk version of the mawwal is usually a bit simpler musically though still requiring strong vocals and accompanied with percussion and mostly more up-tempo.
Abdou is accompanied by wonderful instrumentalists on the ney, accordion, saxophone, and percussion.
