Farabi plays Arab, Turkish, Greek, and Gypsy music with fire and finesse.
The doumbek, 'ud, violin, and riqq blend in traditional music for bellydance
and folk dance. Farabi music is earthy music, smoky music, fire and water
music. We play traditional music on acoustic instruments, rather than the
modern, urban, synthesized music that is now coming out of the Middle East.
But don't just take our word for it...
If you don't want to wait for the long download that you
get with .WAV samples, you can download the Real
Audio Player (even better, maybe you already have it) and hear these
samples in (nearly) realtime!
Here's a sample of the dance tune Tamar
Hinna in .wav format , 20 seconds, about 8K.
And here's a bit
of a drum solo in .WAV format, 345K, about 16 seconds.
Mosaic: Our current release. 70 minutes (yes, you heard right, 70 minutes) of HOT Middle Eastern music. Two full dance sets - one traditional, one Gypsy, PLUS a tribal set, plus more Rembeitka and folk music. Hot drum solos, beautiful Taqsims and more...
Raqs Farabi: Something old, something new... So many dancers have asked for some of our older material on CD - so we remastered many of the tracks from Taverna, plus the often-requested "Rompi Rompi", and added some hot new Turkish Gypsy tracks (some devastating Slow 9/8's), along with some great live tracks. This CD is almost all music for Raqs Sharki (Middle Eastern Dance). Raqs Farabi - Farabi Rocks!
Travels with Farabi: Our first release. One dance set, traditional Arabic, as well as Greek, Turkish, and Arabic folk music. (Look below for Samples!)
Taverna: Our second release. Two dance sets - one traditional
American style (i.e., combining Turkish and Arab musics), one Gypsy dance
(Beginning with a hot 9/8 and moving out from there). Some contemporary
Gypsy music, as well as a set of Rembetiko music from Greece, round out
the record.
Did I mention great drum solos? Don't just take my word for it. Download
a sample !
Jonathan Kessler plays Doumbek, the goblet shaped drum of the Arab world. He appears on several albums in addition to the Farabi cassettes, most notably the beautiful fusion of world musics At the Court of the Chera Kings on Water Lily Acoustics. In addition to his musical ventures, Jonathan is a writer, psychotherapist and website developer. He is featured in " The Doumbek Video", an instructional video for the Doumbek. He also maintains an online collection of advanced and odd-meter rhythms from Turkey, Armenia, Bulgaria, and other parts of the Middle East at his Advanced Doumbek Rhythms site.
Eliot Bates plays the 'Ud, the Arab predecessor of the Lute. He recently completed his Masters degree in music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In addition to his work in Farabi Eliot has released several CDs of Ambient music.
Brad Wright plays violin, viola, and the gadulka, a Balkan stringed instrument much like the Turkish Kemence but with sympathetic strings and a truly unique sound. Brad is a visual artist who painted , among other things, the Farabi album covers.
Shirley Force plays the Riqq, the Arabic tambourine. This is actually the most respected Middle Eastern percussion instrument (whereas in the West, the tambourine is seen as a lowly sort of thing). In Egypt, the riqq player would get all the glory, while the drummer would stand quietly in the corner, overlooked...Shirley has spent many years performing as a folk dancer and musician.
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For more information contact kesslari@doumbek.com
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Page created by: kesslari
Changes last made on: October 2002
