A bit pricey at $7 but what can you do. It looked interesting enough even without the half naked woman on the cover. That women was Romanian born belly dancer/actress Nejla Ates (1932-2005). She was a star in Turkey and had some decent success in the US of A, staring in films such as Son of Sinbad and Broadway’s Fanny. A naked statue of her was erected in New York’s Central Park in 1954.
The central artist of this effort. also featured in Fanny, was Mohammed El Bakkar. a Lebanese oud player who sang tenor and rocked the fez like nobody’s business. Appearing an 32 pictures in the Middle East, he moved to Brooklyn in 1952 , where he would soon become a citizen. He toured, recorded and appeared on TV and radio as well as the Broadway mention above. He would die in 1959 from a cerebral hemorrhage while performing at a Lebanese American festival. He was 46.
On the back cover, his bio states that he performed for King Farouk of Eygpt, King Ibn Saud, and the Shah of Iran. A regular pre-OPEC who’s who. This reminds me of two books I borrowed last time I was home. One was on the Middle East. The other was about the Seven Sisters (the major oil companies of last century). Both books were good but were written in the mid 70’s. As a result, it was like reading a Kafka novel in which there was no ending. I mean they both ended before things got interesting.
So back to this record. It is a collection of songs mostly from Egypt. Pretty decent stuff. The tracks are okay. Interesting tunes. Decent vocals. Good musicianship. This was released on Audio Fidelity Records around 1957.
For a sample, I went with “Hela Hope” of “Be Careful Of Love”.
A bit high priced but I learned something so there. Satisfactory.