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There is nothing in my life that I am more proud of than my Arab heritage. Regardless of weather it is fashionable or not, I am That. I am Egyptian, and Muslim. Yet I identify with "Arab" more than anything else. Sometimes I even brag about it. But at the same time, I am floating in the Ether, un-catagorizable, and not easily explained. I enjoy the largest possible universe. It is great to know that everything is possible. And thank God for the drum to keep things simple.
I first got exited about music from a synthesizer keyboard, one with a bassoon sound and a bossanova drum beat. That was over twenty five years ago, when we first immigrated to America. It is now among the last instruments I would touch. But it was a real smokin' party machine back then. Go Casio !! My High School music teacher was a pioneer of electronic music. He used to program the entire scores of the school Theatre Musicals because our school had no live orchestra. He taught me how to be a producer.
But somehow, with all that Heavy Metal, Acid Rock and Bellbottom Funk that I played through high school, Old-Style tradition Arabic music still crushes my soul. It is my first love. It is the only style of music that consistently blisses me. Especially from the 1940's. This style of Arab music is what I excel at the most. And I love playing the Riqq (Arab Tambourine) as the only percussionist with an ensemble or small orchestra. But when asked who is my favorite percussionist, I always name singers.
For the following ten years, I lived in an Arab music ghetto. I listened to and played Oum Kalsoum, Sayyed Darwish, and Mohammed iKahlowi songs. I was also enraptured by the Darwaeesh (Egyptian Dervishes) and heavy spiritual music. In that time I discovered three Arab ex-patriot musicians that opened a restaurant on the bad side of a bad town. They were all at least 30 years older than me, and had amazing taste in music. These guys would wear suits just to go to the super market; real old-school cats. I would drive an hour there and back every night for years to play Riqq and Tabla with them, for an imaginary audience. I used to operate and manage my mother's clothing stores in the 1990's. Hours would elapse when no one would walk in, or even walk by. International Techno House was the music of the salesgirls and Euro/International clients of Boston. It was playing all day long in the store. I would practice my Tabla (a goblet drum often called Doumbek) along with the House beat. That's where Turbo Tabla was born.
So I find my favorite songs, instruments, rhythmic ideas, melodic drama, and emotional manipulation from the Arab music repertoire. I employ my talented musician friends to help me record these from scratch. I then bolster the sound with House, Techno, Trance, HipHop and Funk grooves, and dance-music sound scema. It's kind of like what I hear in my head, a Turbo Tradition. The Authentic Future. The Heaviness of the classic Arab soulfullness, fused with the Heaviness of the Urban dancefloor mania. A hybrid of my own bicultural existence.
The Tabla, and drumming, is all about Music. It is not a sport. I am not concerned with who plays the fastest, most intricate, or heroic. Drumming is not about playing patterns, it's about playing Music. No one compares the voices of two singers based solely on vocal acrobatics or virtuosity. People judge them by their songs, content and charachter. I make songs, I play songs with my drum. My drum makes music, not acrobatics. I guess this is why my favorite percussionists are singers.
Ok, so I am a drummer, and a DJ, plus producer/composer. But Dance is the final ingredient. And dance is where acrobatics are encouraged. I love the stomping Dabkaat of Palestine/Lebanon/Jordan/Syria. And the stick twirling Egyptian dance Tahteeb is so intense. Plus the Sagat/Zill finger cymabisms. I love percussive dances. Thankfully I figured out that music and dance are practically the same activity. And when done with sincere syncronicity, they become one wholistic ritual. And I am lucky enough to travel internationally to teach this ecstatic cohesion of sound and movement from the Arab world.
So Turbo Tabla is my ethno-electronic cultural and maniacal trek. It is both a recording, and a performance. I have combined Drumming, DJing, and Dance. The future will include Dialogue, Design and other things starting with other letters. A "Turbo Theatre", perhaps. A comprehensive experience of re-imagined Arab culture and the universality of expression through music and movement. Help me continue this!! You can do so by supporting and enjoying my music, taking my classes, writing to (or about) me, and sharing the love and friendship of this whole process. I am not self-indulgent. All of this must be enjoyed by others. It's all about sound, motion and meaning. Community with a Beat !!!!
I first got exited about music from a synthesizer keyboard, one with a bassoon sound and a bossanova drum beat. That was over twenty five years ago, when we first immigrated to America. It is now among the last instruments I would touch. But it was a real smokin' party machine back then. Go Casio !! My High School music teacher was a pioneer of electronic music. He used to program the entire scores of the school Theatre Musicals because our school had no live orchestra. He taught me how to be a producer.
But somehow, with all that Heavy Metal, Acid Rock and Bellbottom Funk that I played through high school, Old-Style tradition Arabic music still crushes my soul. It is my first love. It is the only style of music that consistently blisses me. Especially from the 1940's. This style of Arab music is what I excel at the most. And I love playing the Riqq (Arab Tambourine) as the only percussionist with an ensemble or small orchestra. But when asked who is my favorite percussionist, I always name singers.
For the following ten years, I lived in an Arab music ghetto. I listened to and played Oum Kalsoum, Sayyed Darwish, and Mohammed iKahlowi songs. I was also enraptured by the Darwaeesh (Egyptian Dervishes) and heavy spiritual music. In that time I discovered three Arab ex-patriot musicians that opened a restaurant on the bad side of a bad town. They were all at least 30 years older than me, and had amazing taste in music. These guys would wear suits just to go to the super market; real old-school cats. I would drive an hour there and back every night for years to play Riqq and Tabla with them, for an imaginary audience. I used to operate and manage my mother's clothing stores in the 1990's. Hours would elapse when no one would walk in, or even walk by. International Techno House was the music of the salesgirls and Euro/International clients of Boston. It was playing all day long in the store. I would practice my Tabla (a goblet drum often called Doumbek) along with the House beat. That's where Turbo Tabla was born.
So I find my favorite songs, instruments, rhythmic ideas, melodic drama, and emotional manipulation from the Arab music repertoire. I employ my talented musician friends to help me record these from scratch. I then bolster the sound with House, Techno, Trance, HipHop and Funk grooves, and dance-music sound scema. It's kind of like what I hear in my head, a Turbo Tradition. The Authentic Future. The Heaviness of the classic Arab soulfullness, fused with the Heaviness of the Urban dancefloor mania. A hybrid of my own bicultural existence.
The Tabla, and drumming, is all about Music. It is not a sport. I am not concerned with who plays the fastest, most intricate, or heroic. Drumming is not about playing patterns, it's about playing Music. No one compares the voices of two singers based solely on vocal acrobatics or virtuosity. People judge them by their songs, content and charachter. I make songs, I play songs with my drum. My drum makes music, not acrobatics. I guess this is why my favorite percussionists are singers.
Ok, so I am a drummer, and a DJ, plus producer/composer. But Dance is the final ingredient. And dance is where acrobatics are encouraged. I love the stomping Dabkaat of Palestine/Lebanon/Jordan/Syria. And the stick twirling Egyptian dance Tahteeb is so intense. Plus the Sagat/Zill finger cymabisms. I love percussive dances. Thankfully I figured out that music and dance are practically the same activity. And when done with sincere syncronicity, they become one wholistic ritual. And I am lucky enough to travel internationally to teach this ecstatic cohesion of sound and movement from the Arab world.
So Turbo Tabla is my ethno-electronic cultural and maniacal trek. It is both a recording, and a performance. I have combined Drumming, DJing, and Dance. The future will include Dialogue, Design and other things starting with other letters. A "Turbo Theatre", perhaps. A comprehensive experience of re-imagined Arab culture and the universality of expression through music and movement. Help me continue this!! You can do so by supporting and enjoying my music, taking my classes, writing to (or about) me, and sharing the love and friendship of this whole process. I am not self-indulgent. All of this must be enjoyed by others. It's all about sound, motion and meaning. Community with a Beat !!!!
- Karim Nagi, 4/07
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'RHYTHM FOR DANCERS' - WORKSHOPS and CALENDAR
EDUCATION PROGRAM . LESSONS . SHARQ ensemble . PRESS . KMP . LINKS . BOUTIQUE
'RHYTHM FOR DANCERS' - WORKSHOPS and CALENDAR
TURBO TABLA is a solo performance that combines the spontaneity of a live drummer with the stylistic intensity of a DJ. The best description would be "Arabic Techno". Karim, a classically trained Egyptian percussionist, performs on his feet with and an amplified Tabla (goblet drum) that employs many of the effects and sounds of an electric guitar. Karim dances, spins, jumps and entertains while executing the most rapid and grooveworthy hand percussion possible. The accompaniments are always the remixes and recreations of traditional Arabic and World music, with techno and hip hop beats, created by Karim. Karim is an accomplished performer of traditional Arabic music with the highest calibre of authenticity. It is this classical expertise that allows Karim to make modern Oriental music while maintaining the discipline of his Arabic background.