Gems Of The Middle East
Recorded By
Mary Ellen Donald & Mimi Spencer

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

This is a collection of well-known songs from the Middle East performed by a pair of San Francisco musicians, Mary Ellen Donald and Mimi Spencer. There are a total of three CD's in the series, each of which is sold individually. The songs they selected are predominantly Arabic, with a small number of songs from other nationalities included. Mary Ellen plays percussion, while Mimi plays kanun (a Middle Eastern type of zither) and sings.

This review discusses all three, because the comments I would make about one apply equally to all three with respect to what I liked, what I didn't, etc.

What I Liked: There's a lot to like about Gems Of The Middle East, including:

• It uses well-known traditional songs from throughout the Middle East. This choice of music makes it quite useful for a student who wants to become more familiar with the best-known Middle Eastern melodies.
• For each song, the label identifies the song title and how long the track is. This is very helpful when choosing music from this collection for performances.
• The production quality is excellent.
• The musicians are skilled, so the songs are played well. Mimi's voice has a pleasant quality and works well for the vocals on this type of music.
• A large number of songs are about 3 1/2 minutes long, which is a good length for dancers who want to mix and match diverse songs to put a performance together. Other musicians record longer tracks of 4-5 minutes, which must often be cut in order to make a performance fit within the allotted time slot.
• There's also an assortment of songs which are between 6 and 7 minutes in length. For the most part, these are classics that include multiple rhythm changes within the same song, and they contain enough variety within a single song to work well for performances at seminar shows and festivals whose sponsors put a 7-minute limit on solo slots.
• Each CD has a great percussion solo.
• I've always liked music played on the kanoun. I find the sound of that instrument very appealing.
• Across all three albums, the choice of instruments and musical style is similar. This enables a dancer preparing a performance to assemble songs from across all three, and still end up with a consistent-sounding show in which all the songs sound like they belong together.

What I Didn't Like:

• The paper labels inside the box didn't identify which country the songs were from. This impairs the value of this collection as a learning tool for students. (I later learned from Mary Ellen that the companion books do contain this information. But it would have been nice have it included with the cassette.)
• The emphasis was heavily on Arabic music--I would have preferred more diversity. However, among U.S. dancers I am in the minority--Arabic music is definitely more popular among U.S. dancers than music from other areas, so Mary Ellen and Mimi made an astute business decision in opting to select mostly Arabic songs.

The primary instruments used on this collection are kanoun (a Middle Eastern zither), riqq (tambourine) and dumbek (goblet-shaped drum). The bulk of the music is played by Mary Ellen Donald on percussion and Mimi Spencer on kanun and vocals. Mary Ellen is assisted on the percussion solos by Aushim Chaudhuri, Terry Holgate, and Susan Goldenstein. The percussion solos all have a full, rich sound due to Mary Ellen's decision to use an ensemble of several percussionists playing together.

Most of the songs on Gems Of The Middle East are classic Arabic music, with a sampling of songs from other areas. Each album contains nearly an hour of music, so collectively they offer 3 hours of Middle Eastern songs for listening, dancing, or musician practice.

Across the three volumes, as a group, the songs represent the following ethnic origins:

• 35 of the songs are Arabic (mostly Egyptian and Lebanese, with a couple of Saudi).
• 1 song is Armenian.
• 4 of the songs are Greek.
• 2 of the songs are Turkish.
• 1 song is Hebrew.
• 4 songs are improvisations (3 of which are percussion solos).

See the Songs Included section below for titles of which songs were chosen for the collection, and which volume each appears on.

You will probably like this collection if:

• You are particularly fond of Arabic music.
• You prefer to work with classic, well-known songs by composers like Farid Al-Atrache, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Abdel Halim Hafez instead of modern-day al jeel pop hits.
• You like the sound of the kanoun.
• You want to become familiar with representative songs that live bands are likely to know and play for you.
• You prefer music played on traditional acoustic instruments (kanoun, riqq, dumbek) rather than modern-day electronic instruments (keyboard, electric bass, etc.)
• You like the simple instrumentation of a takht (small ensemble) more than the sound of a 40-piece orchestra.
• You're looking for study aids to help you really understand the musical and rhythmic structure of widely-used Egyptian songs. (Together with the companion books, this music collection is valuable for this purpose.)

You probably won't care for this music if:

• The music you choose for your performances consists primarily of modern-day al jeel pop music.
• You respond best to music with an intensely folkloric sound, such as old folk songs played on mizmar or rebaba accompanied by tabla baladi. Although the kanun, riqq, and dumbek used on these CD's are traditional acoustic instruments, and therefore suitable for folkloric dance styles, the majority of the songs chosen for the "Gems" collection are famous 20th-century classics rather than traditional folkloric songs.
• You prefer the 20th-century urban Egyptian sound played by a 40-piece orchestra over the sound of a takht (small ensemble).
• You don't care for Arabic music. Although this collection contains some songs from other places, there aren't very many of them.

Some of the songs in this collection like Saba Samir and Hebbina use simple rhythms that beginning-level dancers who have been exposed to Arabic music will find easy to recognize and use. Others, like Leilet Hob, are more complex with rhythm changes periodically throughout the song, and are better suited to intermediate or advanced dancers. For the most part, if a song is less than 4 minutes long, it's probably one of the simpler ones that a beginner could figure out how to use. But if the song is 6 minutes or longer, it's probably one of the more complex songs that may be better suited to more experienced dancers. This is admittedly a simplification, but it's a rough guideline you can use if you don't have a teacher to help you work with this music.

I very much liked the fact that each of these albums featured a different percussion solo. These were rich-sounding, and they're very danceable. However, it would have been nice if each had also featured a solo kanun improvisation. When I'm mixing music for a show, I often like to use either a chiftetelli or a free-form improvisation for one of my slow parts, and in the 3 hours of music offered in this collection there was only a single chiftetelli.

Mary Ellen has taken an interesting direction in offering this music--each CD has a companion book, which is sold separately. The book provides guidelines for dancers and music students alike in understanding the rhythmic structure of each song. The books assume that you have already become familiar with standard Middle Eastern rhythms such as maqsoum and chifte-telli, and it tells you how those rhythms are used in each song. In addition, Mimi has published two song books with sheet music for the songs in this collection. One is for the instrumental numbers, and the other includes lyrics (and translations) for the vocal numbers. I have reviewed these books separately on my web site. See my book reviews page for reviews of all five "Gems" books.

This review encompasses three different CD's, each sold separately but similar in packaging, musical style, and musicianship. This section lists the songs available on each.

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

Nationality

MP3 Clip?

Translation?

Comments

Song Title

Length

Nationality

MP3 Clip?

Translation?

Comments

Song Title

Length

Nationality

MP3 Clip?

Translation?

Comments

I have taken two workshops (one on playing finger cymbals, the other on playing tambourine) from Mary Ellen Donald, and I found both to be very valuable. But I really didn't get a chance to get to know her on either of those occasions. I have had two telephone conversations with her recently. She called to introduce herself after learning about the review of her finger cymbal instruction book that appears elsewhere on this web site. It was a pleasant conversation that reinforced my already-positive opinion of her, but we still don't know each other very well.

After our first telephone conversation, Mary Ellen sent me copies of selected books and CD's to review. I purchased all three of the "Gems" set at the normal price before this occurred, and decided what to put in my review before receiving these complimentary copies of her other material.

I have taken a couple of workshops on introduction to Middle Eastern music from Mimi Spencer, and found her to be very knowledgeable. However, I've never really had a chance to get to know her.

These CD's are available through many vendors who sell music for belly dancing. If your favorite vendor doesn't have it, you can order directly from Mary Ellen Donald. To contact her:

Mary Ellen Books
P.O. Box 411562
San Francisco, CA 94141-1562
U.S.A.

Telephone: (+1) (510) 654-DRUM or (+1) (510) 654-3786

Web Site: www.maryellendonald.com

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