CAIRO — Many Egyptians associate the tabla
drum with
belly dancers and seedy nightclubs but, despite its image problem,
percussionists are giving the ancient instrument a new lease of life.
اضافة اعلان
And it is often women who are now playing the
goblet-shaped traditional drum, an early version of which has been found in the
ancient temple of the Goddess Hathor in Qena, southern Egypt.
The beat of the tabla is ubiquitous, animating every
Egyptian wedding, concert and impromptu dance party.
And yet professional tabla players have been
associated with nightclubs, where they accompany the undulations of belly dancers,
looked down on as figures of ill-repute by many Egyptians.
“The public’s image of the tabla is very negative,”
said music expert Ahmed Al-Maghraby. “People associate it with a lack of
morals.”
That is something the newcomers want to change.
“There’s a new trend now: solo tabla concerts,” said
musician Mostafa Bakkar, who struggled with his own family’s disapproval of his
decision to become a tabla player and teacher.
“People find the environment shameful,” he told AFP.
“They make fun of me and ask, ‘So where’s the dancer?’”
‘Music therapy’
The quip has its roots in
Egyptian popular culture.
The 1984 hit movie “Al-Raqessa wal Tabal” (The
Dancer and the Tabla Player) told the story of a percussionist whose career
grinds to a halt after leaving his belly dancer partner to strike out on his
own.
Bakkar, 30, who ties his dreadlocks back with a
white bandana, said he also organizes improvised drum-playing circles for
amateurs.
“I pass out tablas to people around me and we play
music in unison,” he told AFP.
“It’s a kind of group therapy,” chimed in
neuropsychologist Christine Yaacoub, a regular at Bakkar’s drumming sessions.
“I saw how happy tabla can make people, so now I use
it as music therapy with my patients,” she said.
By practicing percussion together, “we heighten our
attention span”, she explained, because the tabla allows people “to express
themselves without speaking”.
‘Break the rules’
Most professional
tabla players have been men, but now more and more Egyptian women are taking up the
ancient instrument, either professionally or as a hobby.
In 2016, tabla players Rania Omar and Donia Sami,
one of whom is veiled, went viral on social media with a video that attracted a
fair share of online hecklers but also an outpouring of support.
Encouraged, the duo went on to become the first
all-woman tabla band in Egypt.
In 2019, 33-year-old Soha Mohammed joined them to
create “Tablet Al-Sitt” (The Woman’s Tabla), “to give all women a chance to
sing freely and play the tabla”.
Mohammed has since been traveling with eight other
percussionists across Egypt, treating audiences to new takes on traditional
classics.
At a recent Cairo
show under a bridge on the Nile’s banks, 500 people gathered at the “Sawy
Culture Wheel”, singing and clapping along as Tablet Al-Sitt played folk
favorites.
For band member Rougina Nader, who at age 21 has
spent 12 years playing the instrument, it was a long, difficult road to
becoming a full-time percussionist.
“We upset men, because we’re competition, and audiences love
us,” she told AFP. “There are obstacles, but that won’t stop us from continuing
to break the rules.”
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