By Elliott D. Woods
First Published: November 7, 2008
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If you had gone to Manial Palace late Wednesday evening, you would have passed through a long tunnel of tangled banyan trees, glowing white under soft light, adorned with the flags of 18 European and Arab nations.
You would have heard lighthearted chatter in as many tongues. You might have thought you’d stumbled on a secret meeting of the United Nations’ social hour. However, the summit at Manial wasn’t for diplomats, but for a colloquium of the world’s hottest jazz ambassadors.
German percussionist Wolfgang Haffner, Cuban saxophonist Nardy Castellini, Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvaer, and Cairo’s native son, keyboardist/composer Fathy Salama, each played a set with their respective band to kick off Jazz Factory, a series of concerts and workshops sponsored by the European Commission in Cairo.
In front of a backdrop of skyscraping palms, dignitaries took the stage to welcome the musicians and the crowd to Jazz Factory: “Music is a language without borders, and that’s why we’re here,” said the Norwegian ambassador. His Spanish counterpart proclaimed, “Jazz Factory is a factory for peace, a factory for knowledge, a factory for better relations between our countries.”
Musicians gathered at the pre-concert reception shared the ambassadors’ enthusiasm, looking forward to 10 days of global give-and-take with contemporaries whose styles range from Sharkiat’s Arabic-inspired fusion to Nils Petter Molvaer’s techno-blend of digital beats and trancelike trumpet loops.
In the words of artistic director and celebrated Slovakian jazz vocalist Peter Lipa: “[Jazz] music’s ability to survive is so strong, that it has overcome all boundaries, oceans, and is now being played all over the world. I do not think I am off the mark when I say that in the past two decades there has been a noticeably strong rise of ethnic elements in this music. A firm place for these influences is held by European and Arab folk. I believe that the Jazz Factory will become a true factory for new music, which will take into account these influences.”
Nardy Castellini, originally from Matanzas, Cuba, thinks of Jazz Factory as a “workshop for history.” Nardy’s Jazz Quintet, based out of Granada, Spain, will play several sets this week with Nubians, a group of young traditional percussionists from Aswan, in Upper Egypt. The quintet mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms with contemporary piano and saxophone improvisation, creating an explosive blend of rumba and salsa. Castellini plans to record an album with Nubians while in Cairo, and he also expects to collaborate with British pianist Alex Wilson, a longtime friend and stylistic inspiration.
Fathy Salama, the Grammy Award-winning leader of Sharkiat, serves as the artistic advisor for Jazz Factory. A long time teacher and the inventor of “jeel music,” which has come to dominate Arab pop, Salama continued, “I believe that the ‘Jazz Factory’ could be the answer for a rising Egyptian and Arab interest in jazz both by musicians and the public.”
Nothing could be more culturally diversifying or musically progressive than the mélange of heavy, somber Norwegian melodies and microtonal oriental harmonies produced when Sharkiat took the stage with Nils Petter Molvaer’s trio and the duo of saxophonist Trygve Seim and accordionist Frode Haltli. Seim and Haltli have been studying with Fathy Salama since 2005, and the fruit of their cross-cultural labor is abundant, not to mention abundantly cool.
“In Europe, we are not as responsible to the American jazz tradition as the Americans are,” Seim said. “We have our own musical traditions, and we can turn to those traditions when we want to create something new.”
As the concert showed, jazz musicians are like musical sponges with attitude — they absorb drops of style from all over the world, from all points along the chronology of man’s musical history, from Nubian percussion to electronica, a microtonal scale from Egypt here, an accordion riff from rural Norway there. Jazz musicians are quintessential rolling stones, and while they may not gather moss, they certainly gather impressive repertoires.
Jazz Factory performers will barely have time to catch their breath, let alone sit, with regular concerts held every day until Nov. 15. The performers are here to learn and to teach, but they are also here to have fun, and there’s nothing better than watching a musician who’s having a good time, perhaps even an epiphany, right there on stage.
If that’s not enough to get you out to the Manesterly Palace in Manial, the Geneina Theater in Al-Azhar Park, the Culture Wheel in Zamalek or the “After Hours” performances on the Nile Dragon Boat, take these words from Peter Lipa about the importance of Jazz Factory:
“In 2008 we will lay down the building block of our joint Euro-Arabian musical future”
Full details about location, show times, and a list of performers are available at www.mawred.org/jazzfactory.htm or by calling (02) 2362 5057. For information about After Hours at the Trianon Nile Dragon Boat, call 010 601 7928.
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