Home » Jazz Musicians » Reem Kelani Discography

1

Sprinting Gazelle - Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora

Reem Kelani

Label: Fuse Records
Released: 2006
Views: 1,295

Tracks

1. As Nazarene Women Crossed the Meadow (Qata'en an-Nasraawiyyaat)
2. The Cameleer Tormented my Heart ('Adthab el-Jammaal Qalbi)
3. Galilean Lullaby (Tahlileh Jaliliyyeh)
4. A Baker's Dozen (Habl el-Ghiwa)
5. Mawwaal (Variations on Loss)
6. Yearning (Khawaatir wa-Asdaa’)
7. Sprinting Gazelle (Ah! Ya Reem al-Ghuzlaan)
8. Yafa! (Jaffa!)
9. Qasidah of Return (Qasidat al-'Awdah)
10. Il-Hamdillah (Giving Praise)

Personnel

Reem Kelani
vocals

Additional Personnel / Information

Lead Vocals: Reem Kelani tar, mazhar, riqq, daireh, dohol, mihbash, dabkeh, safqah & percussion effects

The Band: Zoe Rahman piano (3, 4, 5, 6, 8)
Idris Rahman clarinet, bass clarinet & tenor saxophone (2, 3, 4, 5)
Samy Bishai violin (2, 4, 6)
Oli Hayhurst double bass (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10)
Fariborz Kiani daf, tombak & naghghareh (2, 4, 5, 7, 10)
Patrick Illingworth drums (3, 4, 7)

Tigran Aleksanyan yarghul (7)
Dirk Campbell nay (9)
Paul Clarvis drums & bandir (5, 9)
Salah Dawson Miller tar, bandir, derbakkeh, karakeb & percussion effects (2, 10)

Solid Strings (9):
Sonia Slany first violin
Samy Bishai second violin
Steve Tees viola
Nick Cooper cello

Backing Vocals:
Christopher Somes-Charlton (1, 5, 10)
Mizan Rahman (5, 10)
Rita Rahman, Amin el-Kholy, Faris el-Kholy & the band (10)

Album Description

Born in Manchester in the UK and brought up in Kuwait, Reem’s father comes from Ya’bad near Jenin and her mother from Nazareth in Galilee. Reem enjoyed early exposure to all sorts of music. She learnt the piano and listened to the Jazz standards her father used to sing at home. She studied the Qur’an as a child and used to hear the calls to prayer about her in Kuwait. Life in the Diaspora also meant that she was exposed to the music of the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, East Africa, the Levant and Egypt. It was whilst at a family wedding in the Galilee that Reem, as a child, was first taken by Palestinian music.

Reem has been recording and collating folk songs from women in her maternal home of Nazareth, in the refugee camps of Palestine and Lebanon and elsewhere in the Diaspora.

Now considered as one of the foremost researchers and performers of Palestinian music, Reem Kelani brings you ‘Sprinting Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora.’ Some of the songs on the CD are Reem’s research and arrangement of traditional (and some very old) Palestinian songs; the others are her own musical settings of popular and resistance poetry by the likes of Mahmoud Darwish, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Rashid Husain and Mahmoud Salim al-Hout.

Reem’s band includes a Jazz rhythm section comprising Zoe Rahman on piano, Idris Rahman on tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet, Oli Hayhurst on double bass and Patrick Illingworth on drums. Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai and Iranian percussionist Fariborz Kiani complete the line-up.

Other artists on this CD include: Armenian duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan (playing the ancient and haunting Palestinian double-clarinet the yarghul); film-composer Dirk Campbell (who lends his string arrangements and nay playing); Salah Dawson Miller (on Arabic percussion); Paul Clarvis (on drums and frame drums), and Sonia Slany with her Solid Strings Quartet.

Reem Kelani sees her project as a means of demonstrating the fact of the Palestinians’ existence, now and in the past. She views her musical journey as both historical and political, personal and collective. She seeks to point out suffering and to highlight celebration. Her journey is a musical one through the written and oral history of a people who are proud of their collective sense of poetry, stories, music and existence. This is manifested in the detailed accompanying booklet which includes introductory notes for each song, lyrics in Arabic and English, and a comprehensive glossary of musical and cultural terms.

Leon Rosselson of Fuse Records offered his advice and his record label. This gave Reem the opportunity to produce the CD herself, thus maintaining her musical and cultural integrity and her independence. Raising the necessary funds for the project was by no means easy, but with the help of friends, family and supporters, the CD was finally made. It took two years in the process and is the culmination of more than 20 years of effort and hope.

Comments


Tags

More Albums

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.