Hanine y Son Cubano

I just go this CD through the mail today.  It contains Arabic songs
done in Cuban styles, or anyway, extending into stretches of
Afro-Cuban music.  Some of the Arabic originals include: Qalbi Wo
Miftahou (originally sung, and presumably written, by Farid
El-Atrache); and Emta Hata'raf, Ya Habibi Ta'al (both originally sung
by Asmahan, Farid's sister).  Some of the others sound very familiar
to me, and although I can't place them I think at least a couple may
have been written for Fairouz.  (Hmmm.  Here's yet another Asmahan
song on the "Pot Pourri" track, which is, I guess, a medley.)

I feel hesitant to make a judgment on a fusion of two musical cultures
I only partly understand, but the project seems pretty successful to
me.  I feel least competent to judge how authentically Cuban the Cuban
accompaniment is.  I like Hanine's singing reasonably well.  Maybe the
weakest part of the project is that it *is* a project: this singer
(who is a trained singer, but not one with previous professional
experience to speak of) and these musicians (who are not even named in
the liner notes) were gathered together for this recording and for
live performances in connection to the recording, but although the
results are decent, I don't get the sense that this mixture is going
to be pursued long-term, not in this form anyway.  I do think the
results could encourage other types of blends between these two
traditions.  (I could do without the one heavy-handed remix, but it's
almost a requirement of contemporary CD releases in virtually any
genre.)

I think that Asmahan, rather than turning over in her graving, is
dancing, a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  (I'm sure
I'd give her a nasty look in real life, since I don't like drinks
spilled on the dance floor and I don't like cigarette smoke; but since
it's Asmahan, and the circumstance is imaginary, I forgive her.)


http://hanine.calabashmusic.com/

http://www.embacubalebanon.com/hanine.htm