The Rough Guide to Bellydance Cafe
January 3, 2010 by admin
Filed under Belly Dancing Books
Album Description
Late night get-togethers at an outdoor café, hookah pipes, chatter and the strong smell of coffee, are all part of the distinct flavour of Middle Eastern street life. As is the shimmying, hip-shaking music phenomenon… More >>
The Rough Guide to Bellydance Cafe
This album has to deserve five stars, if only because of the ground it covers. There’s music from Turkey and Egypt of course, the usual places when one thinks of bellydance, but this album also highlights music from the middle east, like Syria, Lebanon and Israel, that we rarely get to hear too often, and there are even side-trips to Morocco and Greece as well. All in all, this is a very varied collection. More catchy, modernized songs are paired with the very traditional, so you get a mix of both, including Arabic classical singing, traditional instrumentals, fiery oud playing and percussion solos, Greek rebetika, Lebanese pop and gypsy music (and more). Some highlights include the Egyptian Ashshimtini, Glykeria’s Min Perimenis Pia, the classic song Habibi Ya Eini, (apparently by Amr Diab) performed here by Morocco’s Mayodi, and the awesome, multi-layered closing song, La Tsalouni, by Lebanese icon Mohamed Iskander. Forget about the silly title (what does ‘Bellydance Cafe’ even mean, anyway?), and you have a great collection of middle eastern music. I don’t know if its a good ‘cafe’ selection (it probably is) or if it’s good to dance to, but it is great to listen to.
Rating: 5 / 5
I did not particularly enjoy this CD. I was looking for something with more variety and found there to be not enough of the gentler, more mysterious & earthy music that I personally enjoy listening to and dancing to.
Rating: 2 / 5
It’s really difficult to find a good compilation and that one seems to be a good one! I don’t buy this CD because I still have most of the tracks. But for begginers in bellydance and for people who wish to discover the different styles of the music from Middle East, it’s a good choice.
Rating: 4 / 5