Track Listing

1. What a Loss - Khusara Khusara
2. My Beloved Greeted Me (Saaidi Folklore) - Sallam Allay
3. I Adore You - Bamoot Feeki
4. The Magic in Your Eyes - Sehr Oyounik
5. The Lover's Chant - Mawwal El-Oshaa
6. You Are My Life - Enta Omri (III)
7. Eshta
8. Night Foal
9. Aziza
10. Such Beauty - Gamil Gamal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58958 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Media the world over have praised Hossam Ramzy as the "Sultan of Swing" and "Egypt's Ambassador of Rhythm". Here is a collection of Hossam's finest pieces, selected by the great master himself. This is for belly dancers as well as for fans of Egyptian music. This CD is destined to become a favourite with all his fans worldwide!

About the Artist
Born in Cairo, his musical career began early, when at the age of three he was given his first drum – an Egyptian tabla. His passion for percussion was noted by his family (many of whom were themselves involved in the arts) who encouraged him to master his craft by studying with the leading music teachers of Egypt. A move to Saudi Arabia introduced Hossam to many of the Bedouin tribes who gave the young Hossam a rich insight into the cultural origins of Middle Eastern music that became the inspiration for many of his later rhythmic directions.

In the mid 1970’s he moved to England, and enjoyed great success as a Jazz and Latin style drummer working with many highly respected Jazz musicians like Andy Shepherd and Geoff Williams. But, as he began looking for new dimensions of percussive sounds, he found himself turning full circle back to his first love the Egyptian drums, and the thrilling dance rhythms of the Middle East. The distinctive sound of Hossam’s percussion and the exciting rhythms on his albums caught the imagination of Peter Gabriel who invited Hossam to perform on his albums ‘PASSION’ and later ‘US’, and recently his latest album which will be released in the near future. Hossam has gone on to work with many top musicians including Joan Armatrading and Mari Wilson. In 1994 Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (ex Led Zeppelin) invited Hossam to bring together a band of Arabian musicians and work on their reunion album ‘No Quarter - Unledded’ which was awarded triple platinum. This led to Hossam joining Page and P! lant on their historic reunion 1995/96 tour of the world. Ever since, Hossam has been extensively touring with various artists, such as Pino Daniele of Italy as well as many of the top class Arabian Singers like Cheb Khaled, Rashid Taha, Faudel and Yesim Salkim, the most popular female singer from Turkey. To date Hossam has released 15 albums of Egyptian dance and world music, with many of them dedicated to percussion and rhythms of the world.

He has also collaborated on composing and performing many award-winning film sound tracks like: Star Gate, Wings Of A Dove, The Saint, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Stealing Beauty and The Last Temptation Of Christ.

Hossam has most recently performed with Sting on the Michael Parkinson TV Show and he has won the New Age Voice Award for “Best Contemporary World Music” for his album Immortal Egypt in collaboration with Phil Thornton. He has also recently composed and recorded his latest masterpiece “Secrets Of The Eye”, which is available now on the ARC label, and he is soon to release a solo percussion album entitled “Sabla Tolo - Journeys into pure Egyptian Percussion”, also on ARC.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful compilation of new and classic music
This is an excellent CD, and one that I would highly recommend to anyone and beginners especially as it contains a range of different styles of music with tracks from ten of Hossam's albums, all lovingly recorded by Hossam and his ensemble. It has some of the most tracks by the great legends of Arabic music such as "Khusara Khusara" by Abdul Halim Hafiz and "Gamil Gamal" by Farid El Atrash; both great for beginners or intermediates with very clear distinctions between the orchestra and soloing instruments; "Enta Omri - Part III" by Oum Kalthoum which makes a lovely introduction to the Arab world's most legendary and popular singer's music and is of course one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever to perform to; the ever popular and highly addictive "Aziza" by Mohammed Abdul Wahab; as well as the famous Saaidi folklore tune "Sallam Allay" - again a superb practice or performance piece for beginners to get to know the SAAIDI rhythm ; "Eshta" - a really great drum solo; and some of Hossam and his ensemble's own compositions; "Bamoot Feeki" and the soulful "Sehr Oyunik" again really beautiful performance pieces for beginners and intermediates; "Mawwal El-Oshaa" a interesting jazzy piece of Rai style music played by the late great trumpeter Samy El-Babli which will give intermediates and more advanced dancers a different style of music to try; and "Night Foal" - learn to recognise the sounds of traditional instruments such as the rebaba (one bowed violin) and the mizmar (member of the clarinet family that has an immediately recognisable sound). This is the first CD I ever bought, and it is one of my favourites. This is an essential CD for those looking for an introduction to Arabic music and performers and teachers alike. I guarantee you won't be able to resist dancing to this album!

The king of egyptian rhythm...
This is a fabulous compilation, with the best pieces of the egyptian rhythm master Ramzy. Listen it and you can have e global comprehension of his works and his skill. Tabla solo pieces, famous and ancient songs of Umm kulthum, arranged with new modern sounds and ideas, but always following originals music. Good album, like all the others, to use for high level middle eastern dance choreographes. BUY IT!! Sorry for my bad english...

good belly dance music
good variety of music can be used for classes or to choreograph your own dances