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Musician bringing Iraqi culture to U.S.
Special to the Tribune
Published February 24, 2003
A blizzard was the last thing that Arabic music
icon Kazem Al Sahir needed. On the night before
the Las Vegas rehearsals for his U.S. tour, an
East Coast snowstorm stranded several members of
his 15-piece orchestra. These concerts are
crucial for the singer because they are his first
attempt to reach out to a wide American audience.
But like millions of others, he's also concerned
about the threat of war hanging over his Iraqi
homeland.
"There are a lot of people who thought I
shouldn't sing during this time," Al Sahir,
41, says over the phone from his Vegas hotel room.
"But I feel that music is not something that
should be denied during hard times or good times."
Al Sahir, who plays the Chicago Theatre on March
2, has seen unbelievable successes and troubles
during his lifetime. While growing up in Baghdad,
he attended the city's prestigious music
conservatory and used this training to write
deeply emotional pop ballads. The charismatic
singer became wildly popular throughout the
Middle East, but he suffered personal losses
during the Iran-Iraq and Persian Gulf wars during
the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout these events, Al
Sahir's devotion to his heritage has fueled his
musical ambitions. He is working on an operatic
version of the ancient Babylonian Epic of
Gilgamesh.
"The things he's got, no other Arabic singer
has," says Wally Jadan, owner of Radio and
TV Orient, a Michigan-based Arab-American cable
network and the tour's sponsor. "He's the
only singer who appeals to the entire Arab world.
He's a superstar between Elvis and Sinatra."
But Al Sahir hardly started out as a teen idol.
He wrote his first composition when he was 12,
and a teacher encouraged him to pursue music.
From an early age, Al Sahir was passionate about
Arabic classical music. "I'm very romantic,"
Al Sahir says. "I would tell stories to my
girlfriend and Arabic classical music felt right
in a romantic sound, especially when I was
telling a romantic story to a young lady."
When Al Sahir entered the Music Academy of
Baghdad at 21, his instructors did not care about
such dreamy inclinations. For six years, he
studied Iraqi folklore and the oud (an Arabic
stringed instrument, similar to the lute), but he
specialized in his country's version of the
maqam, the Arabic melodic template.
"The Iraqi maqam is one of the most
difficult of the Arabic world," Al Sahir
says. "The mawal of Lebanon and Syria has
more freedom to improvise. But the Iraqi maqam is
more regimented -- here's where you begin, here's
where you put in your flourish, and here's where
you end."
During Al Sahir's final years at the academy, he
wrote the pop song "Abart Al Shat"
("I Crossed the River"), which became a
huge hit throughout the Middle East in 1988. His
purist teachers tried to expel him for this
affront, but he continued to prove his skills in
the classical realm. After his graduation, Al
Sahir found the pop music industry equally
discouraging.
"They all wanted me to do synthesized pop
rock. They didn't understand that I wanted to
keep the integrity of classical music and the
essence of its orchestrations and introduce pop
through that."
Combines different music
So Al Sahir kept working within the different
idioms. In 1990 the Cairo Symphony recorded his
"La Ya Sadiki" ("No, My Friend"),
a 50-minute piece. He also continued to use
complex arrangements to heighten the five-minute
pop tunes on such discs as "The Impossible
Love." His voice rises above an array of
Arabic and Western strings while brass sections
punctuate strong dance beats. Al Sahir's lyrics,
or the poetry he adapts, are unabashedly
emotional.
"I like lots of English and American movies,
and my music always tells a story," Al Sahir
says. "Like the score for a film."
This narrative sometimes mixes love with larger
tragedies, as Mane' Saeed Al Otaiba's words to Al
Sahir's "Mustakeel" ("I Give Up")
reveal: "My home is not my home anymore, and
the land of the slaughtered is not my land
anymore."
The devastating Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s took
the life of Al Sahir's best friend, and he lost
more companions a few years later during the
Persian Gulf fighting. From 1990 to 1993, he was
living mostly between Jordan and Lebanon and
seldom performing or recording. Of those years,
he'll only say, "It was a very difficult
time."
Al Sahir's career picked up again in the mid-'90s,
and he began performing in amphitheaters
throughout the Middle East. These days he spends
most of his time in Cairo, Dubai, Paris and
Toronto, where he became a Canadian citizen. His
two sons live in Canada, and although he says one
is a talented singer, he'd rather keep them away
from the dangerous temptations in show business.
Al Sahir has not been back to Iraq in four years,
although he says it would not be a problem for
him to return.
When he is asked what he remembers most fondly
about Baghdad, a childhood memory comes
immediately to mind.
"I think about when I was sleeping on top of
the house [to look at the stars]," he says.
"There were 10 of us -- eight brothers and
two sisters -- sleeping on top of that small
house. I miss that."
But for now, Al Sahir's mission is to bring the
faces and culture of Iraq to a larger audience in
the U.S. While Al Sahir has played American
concerts before, those were in small venues that
Arab-American communities rented.
Larger stages
This is his first tour of such larger stages as
the Chicago Theatre and the Beacon in New York.
Arts attorney Brian Taylor Goldstein says Al
Sahir's international fame and Canadian passport
helped him pass through the increasing
governmental restrictions on foreign musicians
seeking work in the U.S.
This tour will also provide a higher profile for
the diverse group of Arab-American musicians who
make up Al Sahir's orchestra.
"The Iraqi people are a very thoughtful and
loving people," Al Sahir says. "They
are known for their creativity and love peace."
Bassam Saba, who specializes in the nay (Arabic
flute), moved to the U.S. from Lebanon in 1990
and settled on Long Island.
As an educator, he has seen Americans becoming
more curious about Middle Eastern music and he
believes that Al Sahir's concerts will have a
positive impact on this growing interest.
Drummer Ramy Antoun, who was born in Egypt, grew
up in California and has spent much of his career
working in rock bands and assorted studio
sessions. Antoun says he's looking forward to
performing within the traditions of his ancestry.
"There are a whole lot of Arabic singers out
there, and the majority do this fluffy pop Arabic
song. But Kazem is definitely more legitimate
with his writing and arrangements," Antoun
says. "He just brings integrity to the music."
The international situation is also on Antoun's
mind.
"With the whole war on Iraq and all the
elements that brings, at least I know that
there's a purpose to Kazem going and doing these
shows. And that, in and of itself, is more
rewarding than just showing up and getting a
paycheck."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago
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