Best,
John

Forgive me for beating a dead horse or engaging in a “Parthian shot” here, but one point has been swimming around in my head: Knowing what I know about Marcel Khalife and his politics, I strongly doubt that the situation on the ground in Israel and Palestine had much to do with his decision to boycott the WOMAD festival. I would bet that Khalife is enough of a categorical anti-Zionist that he would refuse to share a program with an Israeli under pretty much any circumstances. (I did troll a few of years worth of concert listings on his web page, to see if he may have shared a program with an Israeli—certainly doesn’t look like it.) In this he is more insistent than most Palestinian performers I know of (including almost all those I listed above), who regularly perform with pro-peace Israelis. If I had more time and energy, I would try to organize a concert tour for Adel Salameh, who has expressed interest to me in doing a “peace concert” tour (his Algerian wife is a talented singer, and he has some top-notch Israeli musicians on tap). A good project?

Thanks,
John

My post was less clear than it would have been had my original post not been blown out. I was probably writing in a bit of a snit. (There was something wrong with the email address I inputed, and your system wouldn’t let me correct it without hitting the “back” button…).

I knew that you would have discretion to post the message that was caught by the filter (there was an “error” message, so I knew it was caught by the filter), I just posted the other message just in case you were considering not allowing the post.

I didn’t mention Simon Shaheen because I feel he gets a fair amount of attention. Also, I am not really into the fusion-oriented music he has recorded with Qantara. However, there are a couple of videos of him on YouTube performing traditional taqasim (improvised solos). His level of technical skill is very high.

Almost all of the web links I provided have sound samples. I have tried unsuccessfully to get the two major Arab-American music distributors (Rashid Sales and Maqam.com) to carry Samer Totah’s CDs. I highly recommend Marwan Abado’s CD “Marakeb,” which should be available in the US.

I would be happy to discuss Palestinian music and musicians (and Marcel Khalife, whom I met once) further via email.

Best,
John

I don’t know as much about Middle Eastern music as you do. But I like Khalife very much. I just heard Simon Shaheen perform here a few weeks ago & found his work less compelling & even more crossover than Khalife’s. As for the Palestinian performers you mention I’d heard of only a few of them. This site features a song co-written by David Broza & Murad of Sabreen. I’m very interested in Palestinian music & if you’re willing to share any of it with me or point me to places where I can hear it I’d be grateful.

And pls also don’t assume that because your comment wasn’t immediately published it was because I refused to do so. My spam filter captured it because of the multiple URLs & I had no idea you’d submitted it & it’d been caught.

You made a couple of accusations/insinuations in your 2/25 post. I responded and included substantive information in my (admittedly long) 2/27 reply. Are you going to allow my 2/27 reply to be posted?

Thanks,
John

Reading your comments, it’s hard to be sure that you actually read my post. It seems as if you only perused it and assumed that I am an ignorant right-wing Zionist. As I said, I had prepared a more complete response, but your system blew it out.

Show me where I said that the Salvation Army rejected Khalife BECAUSE of the Alberstein incident. You can’t, because I didn’t. I merely said that I had a chuckle, because an overpoliticized bore of a performer got 86’ed because of politics. What goes around comes around. Note again that I said that it was “most unfortunate” and that the politics behind SA’s decision were “sh—ty.” BTW, Khalife was not scheduled to perform “with” Alberstein at WOMAD; he refused to participate in that same festival as an Israeli and because presence was subsidized by the Israeli government (which is not unusual behavior for a social democracy). (I also find Chava Alberstein’s music rather uninteresting, though I appreciate her political courage. It’s just that she doesn’t have the audience base, i.e., 20+ Arabic speaking nations, that Khalife does. Hence perhaps the need for a subsidy…)

As far as Lebanese Khalife not being treated/packaged as a “representative” of the Palestinians (to the detriment of actual Palestinian performers), see, for example:
————————————-
Category:Palestinian music
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Palestinian music.

Pages in category “Palestinian music”
There are 3 pages in this section of this category.

C
Checkpoint 303
H
The Hawk of Lebanon
K
Marcel Khalife
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Palestinian_music
—————————————

My original post included the names and web pages of Palestinian performers, for example:

1) Marwan Abado - http://marwan-abado.net/
2) Samer Totah - http://www.samertotah.com/
3) Moniem Adwan - http://www.moneimadwan.com/
4) Joubran brothers: - http://www.letriojoubran.com/
5) Kamilya Jubran - http://www.kamilyajubran.com/
6) Sameer Makhoul - http://www.olamale.com/htmls/sameer.htm
7) Adel Salameh - http://www.adelsalameh.com/
8) Issa Boulos - http://www.issaboulos.com/index.html
9) Amal Murkus - http://www.dirtylinen.com/linen/83/amal.html
10) Sabreen - http://www.sabreen.org/
11) Haytham Safia - http://www.haythamsafia.com/
12) Taiseer Elias - http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/elias.html
13) Kamil Shajrawi: - http://www.kamilshajrawi.com/html/main.html

In my original (destroyed) post, I noted that I am a professional ‘ud player (though I don’t claim to be an “ustad” – I have a day job) and that Marcel Khalife’s music lacks “tarab,” an Arabic term which you are no doubt familiar with, if you know a whit about traditional Arabic music and culture. The seven Marcel Khalife recordings (including cassettes I bought in Israel, where his music was sold openly) I own all live in my basement, not in the living room, since I never listen to them. Personally, “Ana Yousif Ya Abi,” (the song for which Khalife was tried in Lebanon for “blasphemy”) is the only cut on the “Arabic Cofeepot” album that I like, the rest sounding to me like kitchy Stalinist agitprop. Musical taste is of course totally subjective…

I’m not in the habit of posting without knowing something about the topic and doing some fact-checking.

Peace,
John

The Salvation Army didn’t eject Khalife because of what happened with Chava Alberstein. They didn’t know anything about him other than that he was Arab & Middle Eastern. They rejected him because they feared a backlash fr. the local Jewish community. If anything they feared the sponsor & not the performer.

Oh do tell us how much you know about Palestinian performers & who you would recommend. I’d really like to hear whether you know a whit about anything you’re talking about.

Khalife is not a “representative” of Palestine as he is not Palestinian. He is Lebanese. Considering how little you know about Khalife I wonder whether you know anything at all about Palestinian music or are just blowing steam.

Thanks,
John