AVAILABLE NOW!

Turkey / Egypt - Turkish Belly Dance Favorites by the Henkesh Brothers - From Istambul via Cairo!
SoT011 - The Henkesh Brothers
The Henkesh Brothers have recorded a Turkish dance CD! The result is a must-have album for any Middle Eastern music collection. Besides native Turkish selections, there are songs by the Roma (Gypsies), the Greeks, the Sephardic Ladinos and the Arabs.  Most of the melodies are centuries old, from Turkey’s Ottoman era. One of them, Uskudara, can be traced back to Yisrael Najara, an Ottoman Jew, who transformed an Arabic tavern song into a shabbat prayer in 1587. The melody is also on Loreena McKennitt’s album Ancient Muse as Sacred Shabbat. The liner-notes, a 36-page color booklet, include in-depth descriptions of each song’s history and lyrics. There are 31 tracks in all; two versions of the songs (with and without finger cymbals – Artemis Mourat plays Turkish/Vintage Orientale zills in duets with Yasmin Henkesh on Egyptian sagat) - 10 rhythm tracks for practice and a bonus track, a field recording from 1980s London, a short “Egyptian” cabaret performance.
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Pulse of the Sphinx Vol. 2 - Rhythm Drills
SoT010 - Reda and Ramadan Henkesh

Cairo Blue - Egyptian Jazz
SoT008 - Ahmed Ramaah and Hosein Al-Issawi
Egyptian Jazz with trumpet and sax. Beladi and beyond - From the streets of Cairo comes this fusion of traditional Middle Eastern rhythms with jazz. For dancers looking for new and unusual inspiration, this album is for you. There are two beladi progressions, sambas, rumbas, saidi, fellahi, maqsoum and the unusual afriqi - that will get your feet moving and put your imagination in overdrive. Yet the album succeeds as listening music as well. The unusual combination of Middle Eastern quarter note thrown into a jazz format is intriguing. Something for everyone. An exploration of rhythms including maqsoum beladi, saidi, rumba, samba, Afriqi and fellahi. Includes 2 complete beladi progressions. Over 70 minutes of original pieces. A wonderful listening experience.
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THE FINGER CYMBAL DUET - Cymbals Speak Part 1 & 2 - Artemis + Yasmin Henkesh
See this article about the difference between Zills and sagat.

Zill Speak - The A(lmee) to Z(ills) of Finger Cymbals
SoT006 - Artemis Mourat - Cymbals Speak Part 1
Learn how to play Turkish / American finger cymbals from a master zillist. Artemis has been teaching and playing finger cymbals for over 35 years. The album contains a 36 page color booklet with tips and tricks to help every zillist, no matter what their level. The booklet is abundant with historical background, diagrams on how to play zills, practical drill exercises, a precise listing of the rhythms by "doom" and "teks" and a unique word pattern rhythm created by Artemis as a learning tool. Teachers and students can navigate to the instruction required by the track listing on the back book cover. Tracks are tied to book chapters and include musical theory explanation, patterns and rhythms, varied playing methods, Arabic and non-Arabic Rhythms, sound and pattern drills and more.
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Sagat Speak - Learn how to play Egyptian one-holed finger cymbals!
SoT007 - Yasmin Henkesh - Cymbal Speak Part 2
Cymbals Speak Part 2 - Learn How to Play Finger Cymbals from A(lmee) to Z(ills). This volume is dedicated to Egyptian sagat and the clam-shell method of playing them. The 40 page booklet contains a detailed explanation of how to string, hold and play them, in addition to an extensive history lesson on the origin of finger cymbals and explanations of the many drills included on the CD. There is also a section on the cymbal patterns used by the ghawazees in 1798 as recorded in Napoleon's Description de l'Egypte. The entire section on cymbals has been translated into English and included in the booklet.
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Ala Mahlik / Take Your Time - Hoda Sinbati
SoT005 - Dina's beladi singer
One of Egypt's brightest country music stars sings 7 classic songs: In Kan Habibi 3asil, 3and al-Sawaqi, Souq Bena ya Ousta, Tulli min al-Mushrabiya,'Alou Wada Mawsouf, 3ala Waraq al-Foul and the elusive Al-Helou fil-Veranda. The album contains two versions of each song - one long version, complete with an introductory leyali and mawwal - and a shorter version ideal for performing. The album also contains a tahmela with taqsims by her gifted mizmar and rababa players. Lyrics to all songs included - transliterated and translated into English.
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THE FIRST OF THE ORIENTALE SERIES
Dancing with Genies - Haflah al Afareet
SoT003 - 2 Complete Egyptian cabaret shows
2 complete Egyptian  style cabaret shows, each just under 30 minutes. Recorded in 2006 in Cairo and mixed in the United States, these shows have been adapted for the time  
restraints of Western belly dance performances. The pieces will please the  purist however, as they were recorded almost exclusively with traditional  instruments. The album contains 
an extensive color booklet with translated  lyrics of the songs, a comparison of Belly Dance shows from around the Middle East and the United States, an article about Egyptian 
dance posture, origins of The Jinn and the entire script from Yasmin's movie, The Egyptian Bellydance Superstars.
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Cry to the Moon - Taqasim lil Qamar
SoT002 Traditional taqasim
Beautiful haunting solos and melodies performed by a traditional Arabic music ensemble,
including instrumental versions of Om Kalthoum's Ana Fintizarik and al-Hob Keda and
Farid al-Atrash's Al-Rabia . The CD also includes a 36 page color booklet about Arabian
musical formats, the instruments and their history, how to dance to a taqsim, biographies
of Om Khalthoum and Farid al-Atrash, in addition to translated lyrics of all the songs.
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The Zar - Trance Music for Women
SoT001 - Zar album details
featuring the famous group Awlad Abou al-Gheit. For more info on the Zar in general click here.
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Ibrahim Farrah wrote at least 4 articles in 1978 about the Zar for his publication, Arabesque. This was at a time when no one had ever heard of the cult in the United States. He had seen Nadia Gamal do a theatricalized version of the trance dance during her show in 1968. According to him, she was the first oriental dancer to incorporate the dance into a cabaret performance. He loved the head movements, which he had incorporated into his dancing before he ever knew where they came from.

Later, the Zar was adapted into the shows of other famous dancers in Egypt, such as Shoo Shoo Amin and Aiza Sharif, in addition to the repertories of the national Folkloric troupes. To make the dances more dramatic, the performers added frame drum players and incense burners, integral parts of any zar ceremony. There are several videos available in Egypt that show these performances. On one of them Shoo Shoo Amin can be seen dancing to a song which is track #7 on our CD, Ya Benat al-Handasa.

• Drum solo series - Master Drummers of Egypt -
• Andalousi - Medieval pieces inspired by Islamic Spain and the Ottoman Empire
• Awalim