Oum Kalthoum | Ghanna el Rabea

Get it all here.

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Yet another CD plucked from the shelves of Nile Gourmet Deli in Astoria, several blocks from my apartment. I've only listened to this album once (I admittedly plucked it just yesterday), but it is a hair-raisingly gorgeous winner. There's a qafla about 10 minutes or so in that sounds like she has broken off the song in mid-, excruciating, sob.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the orchestra sounds lighter than normal here. And, to my ears, more colorful, with lots more stuff going on in the interstices. That, and the really expressive stuff she's doing with her voice here, sometimes with lips fully closed, almost always sounding like some form of hyper-distressed weeping, for instance, between the 16 to 17 minute marks, makes me wonder if this song might have been a particular influence on Asalah Nasri.

It's a cold, gray, wet day here in New York; I woke up feeling more lethargic than President Obama during the debate (sigh), but this CD, when I popped it in the player, was like someone had surreptitiously poured a shot of espresso into the cheap deli coffee I was sipping.

May it brighten your day as well.