Hamza el Din

Hamza El Din ,烏德琴和Tar演奏大師, 現(xiàn)代努比亞音樂之父,是最早獲得廣泛世界承認(rèn)的非洲音樂家之一..他出生于埃及努比亞地區(qū)的Toshka, 最初在埃及開羅學(xué)習(xí)機(jī)械，但對(duì)烏德琴情有獨(dú)鐘，后來索性放棄工作到開羅音樂學(xué)院潛心學(xué)習(xí)音樂.并開始自己創(chuàng)作音樂. 但有感于當(dāng)時(shí)埃及普遍壓抑的政治與社會(huì)氣氛,決定到蘇丹尋求更自由開放的藝術(shù)環(huán)境，當(dāng)時(shí)許多努比亞人在蘇丹產(chǎn)生巨大的文化影響. 1959年,他l來到意大利繼續(xù)深造音樂,在羅馬Santa Cecilia學(xué)院學(xué)習(xí)西方音樂和古典吉他. 正是在那時(shí)候,遇到美國(guó)人Gino Foreman,他向Joan Baez 和 Bob Dylan推薦Hamza.這使他拿到了Vanguard公司的一紙合同,在六十年代中期,他在其旗下出版了Al Oud — Instrumental and Vocal Music From Nubia,這也是最早在西方廣泛流行的worldmusic之一. 西方聽眾同時(shí)也在舞臺(tái)上認(rèn)識(shí)這位來自努比亞的音樂藝人,他與Grateful Dead合作,經(jīng)常為他們演出做伴奏. El Din其后也協(xié)助Grateful Dead在埃及進(jìn)行巡回演出.他被認(rèn)為最為優(yōu)秀的專輯Eclipse,正是由Grateful Dead的鼓手Mickey Hart參與制作的. 六十年代末期開始,他大部份時(shí)間居住在美國(guó).在那他作為一個(gè)職業(yè)演奏家奔走于錄音室,音樂會(huì)之間,他同時(shí)也在大學(xué)里教授人種音樂學(xué),包括俄亥俄州大學(xué),華盛頓大學(xué),德克薩斯大學(xué)等.80年代,得到日本的基金贊助,到東京進(jìn)行阿拉伯烏德琴和日本摩薩琵琶的比較學(xué)研究. 目前Hamza El Din居住在舊金山,繼續(xù)忙碌于創(chuàng)作,教學(xué),錄音,并在全球各地進(jìn)行頻繁表演 ,身影經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)在世界主要的音樂節(jié)上,包括了愛丁堡,維也納,巴黎,柏林,巴塞羅納,洛城,蒙特利爾等等…. Hamza與Kronos Quartet也保持著良好的合作關(guān)系,. 曾替Kronos Quartet作曲,同時(shí)Kronos Quartet也參與了Hamza的音樂制作. Hamza'的音樂經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)在電影soundtrack里,其中包括了Black Stallion(黑神駒),The Passion in the Desert…. Hamza的一些創(chuàng)作作品同時(shí)還被很多芭蕾舞樂團(tuán)采用. Hamza彈奏的烏德琴,泛音豐富,敏感而精微,但毫不拘束,韻律平滑而張力十足.他展現(xiàn)一種新的音樂形式,運(yùn)用阿拉伯古典音樂的技巧和美學(xué)構(gòu)造,勾畫出努比亞音樂的色澤和靈魂.但這并不是一種松散的融合,而是一種新的完全的表達(dá)形式.具有顯著意義的是他運(yùn)用一切烏德琴的技術(shù)特性與新的音樂范式和理念充分結(jié)合,從而使之相對(duì)于努比亞傳統(tǒng)的人聲演唱和鼓樂而獨(dú)立發(fā)展.這種真正意義上的融合是建立在良好的傳統(tǒng)音樂和現(xiàn)代西方當(dāng)代音樂訓(xùn)練基礎(chǔ)下的. 他用飛揚(yáng)的歌詞,遠(yuǎn)古努比亞的語言,低沉的烏德琴聲,相互縈繞使聽者進(jìn)入努比亞人的精神家園.1968年在Nonesuch下發(fā)表的Escalay被認(rèn)為是努比亞音樂最好的范本之一.
One of the first African musicians to gain widespread international recognition, Hamza El Din is a Nubian master of the oud, or the fretless lute. Western listeners are as likely as not to have been exposed to his work via the Grateful Dead, who played with him on-stage occasionally. (El Din also helped arrange the Deads tour of Egypt.) He played an integral role in modernizing Nubian music, using his work to both evoke and tell stories of Nubian life.
El Din was originally trained to be an engineer, but changed direction and enrolled in the Middle Eastern School of Music, where he began to compose his own songs. On a fellowship to study Western classical music in Rome, he met American Gino Foreman, who exposed Hamzas work to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. This resulted in a contract with Vanguard. His mid-60s debut, Al Oud — Instrumental and Vocal Music From Nubia, was one of the first world music recordings to achieve wide exposure in the West.
In the second half of the 1960s, El Din spent much of his time in America, living in guitarist Sandy Bulls apartment for a while. Taking a series of teaching positions in various American locations, he also found time to record a Nonesuch album in 1968, Escalay, that is considered one of the best s of Nubian music. Eclipse is his most notable post-Escalay record, raising his profile in the U.S. when it was reissued on CD by Rykodisc.