A Time Of Peace
Recorded By
Brothers Of The Baladi

A Music Review By Shira

Do you have questions about Shira's reviewing methodology, such as how to interpret the chart, what the categories mean, or what her biases are? Click here for an explanation.

Summary

Overall Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars)

This is a collection of traditional Christmas songs, the majority religious in nature, performed on traditional Middle Eastern acoustic instruments with underlying Middle Eastern rhythms. The arrangements are all instrumental. Cover

What I Liked, What I Didn't

What I Liked:

The use of Middle Eastern instruments and rhythms gave these traditional songs a fresh new sound. I'm very, very tired of hearing ponderous arrangements of these songs blasting me in malls, television commercials, and other places during the holiday season, yet I found myself enjoying these arrangements by the Brothers Of The Baladi as I drove along in my car.
These arrangements provide nice inspiration for Christmas-themed Oriental dance performance. The use of Middle Eastern instruments and rhythms gives them a sufficiently Middle Eastern spin to seem "right" for a seasonal show.
The album contained a collection of a relatively large number (15) individual songs, so even if you don't like a couple of them, there are still enough others to make the album worth having if you like the general style of music.
The liner notes contained a brief glossary listing 11 Middle Eastern musical instruments with a brief description of each.
The artwork for the CD label was beautiful. It really caught my attention.

What I Didn't Like:

This one is hard to answer, because actually I did like it quite a bit. There were a couple of cuts I didn't care for because I just plain didn't like the songs in the first place, but I suppose that's true of every CD/tape I buy.
I found myself wishing there had been more secular songs instead of the heavy emphasis on Christian themes. Although I liked the arrangements of many of the Christian songs, I would hesitate to use them if dancing for a conservative Christian audience. For example, when I performed a bellygram for a going-away party 2 weeks before Christmas, I did not use music from this album even though I did wear a Christmas-inspired costume. I might use the Christian songs if portraying a Biblical character or theme, but not for a "normal" Oriental dance performance.

The Chart

Overall Rating
Production Quality
Musicians' Skill
Suitability For Practice
Suitability For Performing
Educational Value
Packaging
Style	Traditional Western Christmas Music
Amount Of Music	41:13 minutes
List Price	$15.00
Cost Per Minute Of Music	36 cents/minute

Description

Most (but not all) of the songs follow the structure of opening with a solo on a single instrument (often kanoun), then swelling into a group of instruments playing together as the song progresses. For each song, a Middle Eastern rhythm is layered underneath the main melody line. The melody-line instruments used included zurna, bass, bells, bouzouk, kanoun, oud, and ney. The percussion instruments included darbuka/tabla, zarb, riqq, davul, tar, and kaçiklar.

You will probably like this collection if:

You enjoy listening to traditional religious-themed Christmas songs.
You're seeking suitable music to accompany Middle Eastern style of dance within the context of a Christmas pageant or special church service.
You'd like to play familiar Christmas music as background for a restaurant, Christmas party, dance event, or other occasion and you like the idea of using arrangements of these songs that have a Middle Eastern influence.

You probably won't care for this tape if:

You're really not interested in the traditional European Christmas music.

Generally speaking, the rhythms come through clearly and easy to hear, making the music practical to use for either solo or group performance.

Songs Included

A note about the RealAudio clips that appear below: the nature of how RealAudio works is that it makes sacrifices in sound quality. It does that because it tries to make the file sizes as small as possible, thereby allowing you to download them faster. As you listen to these clips, please remember that the sound quality on the original recordings is superior to what these clips sound like.

Song Title	Length	RealAudio Clip?	Comments
Deck The Halls	2:38	Yes	Ayyoub rhythm. Up-tempo and fun. At one point, dueling banjos effect between kanoun and oud.
We Three Kings	3:30	No
Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem	4:04	No	Underlying rhythm is slow chiftetelli. Contains an improvisational segment in the middle on ney and oud against chiftetelli rhythm.
Oh Come All Ye Faithful	2:20	No	Underlying rhythm is maqsoum with a joyful sound to it.
Coventry Carol	1:17	Yes	Played in the style of an oud taxim. When it starts, it sounds like a typical oud solo, but then subtly slips into the recognizable melody of Conventry Carol. No percussion or other instruments playing background rhythm--preserves the taxim format throughout.
Oh Tannenbaum	3:14	Yes	Spirited 6/8 rhythm. Lots of fun--this has become my favorite arrangement of this song!
Good King Wenceslaus	1:46	No	Syrtos rhythm, with lots of energy. I really liked it.
Little Drummer Boy	3:52	No	Slow maqsoum rhythm. Ends with a nice drum solo, but overall I didn't find this particular arrangement very inspiring.
Joy To The World	1:53	Yes	Played entirely on zurna. It was okay, but definitely not my favorite cut on this album. Used ayyoub as rhythm.
Angels We Have Heard On High	1:46	No	Uses slow maqsoum rhythm.
Silent Night	3:21	No	Played as a ney solo, with an underlying chiftetelli rhythm. Very gentle sound.
Hark The Herald Angels Sing	2:08	No
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear	2:18	No
Away In A Manger	3:46	No	Done as a kanoun taxim without rhythmic accompaniment.
The First Noel	3:20	No	Some bouzouki improvisation in the middle.

Disclosures

I have been familiar with Brothers Of The Baladi music since about 1986, and I have many of their recordings in my music collection. I always enjoy watching them perform live, because they project great energy from the stage and they come across as very dancer-friendly. Although we have had some e-mail correspondence and they once invited my troupe to dance in a live show that they organized, I wouldn't claim to know them very well.

Contacting The Producer & Ordering The Music

<==Click here to order from Amazon.com. (Prices expressed in U.S. dollars, shipped from U.S. warehouse.) Not available from Amazon.co.uk in the U.K.

Or, contact the Brothers Of The Baladi as follows:

Brothers Of The Baladi
P.O. Box 14083
Portland, OR 97293-0083
United States

Phone: (+1) (503) 288-4684
Web Site: www.baladi.com
E-Mail: mbeachbaladi@earthling.net

A Time Of Peace Recorded By Brothers Of The Baladi