Nubian artist Ali Kuban has passed away in silence, after a long career in which he spread Nubian folk music in Egypt and abroad, according to the Arabic daily Al Hayat.
Kuban died after 35 years of singing and performing works protraying Nubian art an culture, which depicted the environment, Nile River and way of life in his part of the world.
Pharaonic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ethiopian, and East and West African cultures all have echoes in southern Egypt's Nubia region. The region is revered as a link between Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.
Kuban who was the first artist to introduce modern musical instruments into Nubian troupes, and trained many prominent Nubian singers.
In 1942, Kuban moved to Cairo where he studied at the Boy Scout College, and worked as an apprentice to a tailor. By then, he had also learned to play clarinet and girba (bagpipes) and had begun to find work as a musician. Living among displaced Nubians in the neighborhood of Abdin, he found many opportunities to play at week-long Nubian weddings, where complex tar (frame drum) and hand-clap rhythms, girba and traditional chants enliven pre-nuptial bashes, according to Afropop Worldwide.
Kuban had an epiphany when he heard a jazz band from Harlem performing at Cairo's Gezira Sporting Club. The blended sounds of trombone, saxophone, clarinet and guitar and drums was a revelation, and he instantly wanted to experiment along those lines himself.
He started to develop his distinctly new sound. The Nubian style successfully transformed the complicated rural rhythms and trance-like chants of ancient Nubia while blended them with elements of international pop into the faster speed of modern city life.
After playing in the orchestra for the opera Aida in 1949, Kuban began to work the clubs in Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan, revamping the old music with sax, electric guitar, bass, organ, trumpet and accordion.
The secretary of Quortah Association, Saad Eddin Othman said, “during the Egyptian celebrations of July 1952 revolution, Kuban performed a show before the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Naser and sang his famous song Naser Yibni Al Sadd Wa Nahnu Nebni Mao’h (Naser Is Building a Dam and We're Building With Him).”
“Kuban sang during the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956 for the courageous people of the Egyptian city of Port Said. His famous song then was Ya Port Said. After the 1967 crisis he also went to the soldiers at the front lines and sang for them to raise their morale, in addition to the concerts he held for the army following what Egypt describes as its 1973 victory over Israel,” added Othman.
Kuban was the ambassador of Nubian singing, and he conveyed the Nubian cadence to the world. The music has become known all over the world and demanded by various international festivals.
One American company has recorded a CD containing all of Kuban’s songs in four parts: Sukkar..Sukkar (Sugar..Sugar), Umm Al Amirah (Princess Mother), Afrah (Happiness) and Nidaa Al Nubah (Nubian Call).
All of these songs focus on love, Nubian civilization and their immigration from the south to the north. Kuban sang in all the Nubian dialects including Kunooze in the north, Farika in the south and Wadi Al Arab in the middle region.
The fame of Kuban’s CD spread quickly, to the extent that a number of German musicians contacted the artist and signed a contract with him to hold many concerts in Germany. His concerts in Germany were smash hits, which prompted the International Festival Union to offer him a role in the Berlin International Festival in 1989. Kuban ranked number one at the festival among representatives from nine countries.
In the same year, Kuban secured membership in the international musicians union in Berlin.
The German papers hailed Kuban, saying, “One can feel the nourishing tones coming from the banks of the Nile.”
The international artist James Brown asked Kuban to participate along with him in a number of concerts in the US, France and England. He was known in Europe as the son of the Nile.
British TV organized a dialogue program between him and James Brown, which was attended by more than three thousand persons. Kuban secured during the program the admiration of the audience when he proved that Europe took the Nubian tones and benefited from them in what is called rock and roll music.
Kuban was nicknamed by the Europeans as the "First and Last Genius in Egypt" and the "King of the Koran Nation’s Music."
“Kuban raised the name of Egypt very high in the world of music after he had revived the Nubian heritage and introduced the modern musical instruments into it and yet did not deviate from the Nubian spirit,” said Othman.
Kuban said that in Germany, “We introduced modern instruments into the Nubian context but the instruments did introduce us into their context," added Othman.
Kuban brought his modern take on Nubian culture to the world. He made his international debut at Berlin's Heimatklaenge Festival in 1989, and went on to perform widely, including appearances at France's MIDEM conference in 1993, the WOMAD festival in Japan and the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1994, and at Central Park Summerstage in New York in 1995.
Employing over 60 musicians and operating seven bands, Kuban continued playing traditional and popular music for both urban and rural Nubian enclaves in Cairo until he died there from a heart attack in June at the age of 72.
Womex.com said Kuban's death came shortly after the release of his fourth international album Real Nubian by the Berlin-based Piranha label. The songs and dances on this album once again proved that Kuban had successfully managed to bring ancient Nubian wedding music to international concert audiences – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
