Powerless and angry is what I feel right now with another part of the world is thrown into violence and suffering due solely to the infuriating and pathetic male ego. Two generals, who would happily burn Sudan to the ground just for their own personal ambition and ego. Sudan has had many trials and tribulations since independence, many coups, and a ruthless civil war against southern Sudan which eventually separated and became South Sudan, and ethnic cleansing and genocide in Darfur, which is still a part of Sudan. Many of the perpetrators of this genocide still maintain positions of power including one of the two generals in this power struggle, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was a leader in the Darfur genocide in 2014-2015. It is average people who suffer. People who just want to live their lives and raise families. Powerless and angry.
Sudan like all of Africa, is very very diverse ethnically and culturally, and it has had extremely rich musical traditions. During the 1970's in particular, Sudanese music was spread very far and wide in East, West, and North Africa. We will hear a wide range of Sudanese music in the first half.
| We will start the set with Abdel Gadir Salim, one of Sudan's most famous singers and bandleaders. He was very successful starting in the 1970's, the real peak of musical life in Sudan. Starting in 1979, the ruling dictactor of Sudan, Gaafar Nimeiry, moved towards very strict Islamism. Music and arts came under attack. This worsened under Omar Al-Bashir, musicians were persecuted and some even jailed. The substantial Sudanese recording industry vanished. Abdel Gadir Salim was in a cafe popular with musicians in 1994 when an extremist came in and attacked him and the popular singer Khojali Osman, who died in at the attack. Salim was and remains defiant, refusing to stop performing music. We hear him leading a full band showcasing the urban Khartoum style followed by a paired down recording with Just Salim accompanying himself on Oud with an accordionist. |
| Ghaba nawmi Abdel Gadir Salim - Le blues de Khartoum - Institut du monde Arabe |
| Maqtool Hawaki Ya Kordofan Abdel Gadir Salim - Sounds of Sudan - World Circuit |
| And now we hear something from the murdered Khojali Osman. |
| Malo Law Safeetna Inta Khojali Osman - Two Niles to sing a melody: the violins & synths of Sudan - Ostinato Records |
| And now Hanan Bulu Bulu who achieved fame in Sudan during a brief more liberal period between dictators Nimeiry and Al-Bashir from 1986-89. After 1989 she did not leave Sudan like many of her colleagues, but stayed, and was arrested several times and badly beaten, she did flee to Cairo in 1993 before returning to Sudan in 1995 where she was interviewed for this wonderful Ostinato Records compilation. A live recording of "Alamy Wa Shagiya" is included in the compilation, still a very apposite song, it translates into "My Pain and Suffering". |
| Alamy Wa Shagiya Hanan Bulu Bulu - Two Niles to sing a melody: the violins & synths of Sudan - Ostinato Records |
| Nubian folk and Sufi music follows. |
| Variations rythmiques sur tar Al-Nubatiyya - Chants et tambours de Nubie - Institut du monde Arabe |
| Tello menna? Al-Nubatiyya - Chants et tambours de Nubie - Institut du monde Arabe |
| Shasha al-samir Ensemble al-Mahi - Chants sacrés de Nubie et Kordofan - Institut du monde Arabe |
| La ilah ila lah Ensemble al-Bura'i - Chants sacrés de Nubie et Kordofan - Institut du monde Arabe |
| The lyre is the most popular traditional instrument in Sudan, and it is played by different ethnic groups who call it by different names: tanbura, basamkob, kunijang, abangeren. This wonderful compilation of recordings made in Paris in 1997 during the "Year of Sudan" brings together four lyre players from four different ethnic groups, who all sing in four different languages and play the same instrument despite its different names. We hear the Nubian Qassas Kilabro Miri followed by the Beja Muhammad Al-Badri |
| Finya Moy Qassas Kilabo Miri - Au royaume de la lyre - Institut du monde Arabe |
| Qruha dok bariya Muhammad Al-Badri - Au royaume de la lyre - Institut du monde Arabe |
| Followed by the Beja Noori who plays his own creation, a cross between a lyre and electric guitar. |
| Wondeeb Noori & his Dorpa Band - Beja Power - Ostinato Records |
| Al Laylah Maja Mustafa Al Sunni - Songs of Sudan - Nimbus |
| We end with a single from an upcoming Ostinato release featuring some unique synthesizer dance music called Jaglara from the Fashaga region near the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea. This music is created and played by Jantra. The full album will be released in mid-June.
https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/synthesized-sudan-astro-nubian-electronic-jaglara-dance-sounds-from-the-fashaga-underground |
| Makhafi Ahmed Mohamed Yaqoup Eltom aka Jantra - Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground - Ostinato Records 
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| And now my soul is crying out for spiritual, ecstatic jazz to lose oneself in. Pharoah Sanders and his epic "The Creator Has A Master Plan" from his 1970 album "Karma". |
| The Creator Has A Master Plan Pharoah Sanders - Karma - Impulse! |
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I salute you for this endeavor & tribute ! However, let us not forget that there are also, unfortunately, some pathetic female egos as well, to be fair... Respect! Salam! Your show is always worthy of prise, Sir. And I delight in being witness to it every week, for the past 2 years. May our brothers & sisters in Africa find peace one day... even if the hope is slight... Thank you David
2:15 PM, April 27th, 2023