Who sounds like “The Band’s Visit”?
September 18, 2019 11:43 AM   Subscribe

I just saw The Band’s Visit and now I’m hungry for a lot more music in the same style.

Google searches have yielded only links about the show itself, and I’ve come close by searching for Oud music and Umm Kulthum on Spotify, but I haven’t quite hit the target yet.

Can anyone recommend artists that sound like the band in the show?
posted by Calibandage to Media & Arts (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Zakariya Ahmed

Abdel Halim Hafez

Mohammed Abdel Wahab


Love that musical!
posted by miles1972 at 2:01 PM on September 18, 2019


I've found a lot of good Arabic music by listening to a song by, say, Abdel Halim Hafez on Youtube and letting YouTube keep playing the next recommended song for an hour or two. Maybe check out the playlists "Arab classics" and "Tarab" if you have Spotify. The Anghami app might have the best selection of similar music.
posted by Penguin48 at 6:28 PM on September 18, 2019


I would look for Egyptian or Syrian or Turkish oud music. Dunno why those countries and not others in that corridor. Here's a few I have picked up in my travels.
Abdel Gadir Salim
Fathy Salama
Lena Chamamyan
Souad Massi
Hamza al Din
Maybe Amina Alaoui? - Moroccan and focused on Andalusian/Sephardic and Levant-oriented music.
Closer to home, Pachora. Jazz band with some of my favorite players. John Zorn is in that same milieu, though he can range quite far from traditional Arabic/Levant music.

If you use Spotify, go to an artists page, then look on the "about" tab - there's usually a list of playlists where they appear. That might pull up some names in the same constellation of sounds.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 1:28 AM on September 20, 2019


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