The Arab Music Archiving and Research foundation (AMAR), in collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), presents “Min al-T?r?kh”.

Dear listeners,

Welcome to a new episode of “Min al-T?r?kh”.

In today’s episode, we will resume our discussion about the History of Recording in the Arabian Gulf with Mr. Kamal Kassar and Mr. Ahmad al-Salihi.

We ended our previous episode talking about the recording phenomenon that went beyond Kuwait and spread out to the whole Arabian Gulf region.

Zuwayyid’s recordings triggered the expansion of music in the Arabian Gulf: the first two or three years, it was limited to Kuwaiti musical culture, whereas in 1929, it spread out and included the Bahraini culture. They are said to be different cultures, but in fact their pillars are the same while their application is different. The appellations and the types of singing are similar.

Later on, the 1930’s witnessed the first recordings of numerous mu ? rib such as Bahraini Mu?ammad F?ris who had refused to record at first. It is said that he asked Zuwayyid to record with Baidaphon in order to find out if the microphone would steal his soul. He was reassured and recorded in 1932 with His Master’s Voice.

Where?

In Baghdad. He was accompanied by D??? Bin Wulayd who in 1920 was working at sea as a nahh?m , i.e. a divers’ mu ? rib .

In Basra –they used to travel from Bahrain to Kuwait and back– they met with mirw?s player and percussionist Su‘?d al-Makh?y?a who also sang and agreed with the representative to record a collection of ?awt and to sing. So he went with them from Basra to Baghdad.

They already had a Kuwaiti percussionist residing in Bahrain named ?amad Ab? ?ayb?n Ab? Huwayd? –Huwayd? is a diminutive of ‘Abd al-H?d?, the name of his eldest son. So, Mu?ammad F?ris went with them, and the group now included two Bahrainis and two Kuwaitis.

In Baghdad, they had violinist ??li? al-Kuwayt? who lived there and was an expert at these local fann .

His Master’s Voice recorded a large collection including: Mu?ammad F?ris who only recorded ?awt ; D??? Bin Wulayd who only recorded ?awt except for one record dedicated to women wedding songs called ‘?sh ? r? in Bahrain, and rad?a in Kuwait; and Su‘?d al-Makh?y?a who recorded a collection of ?awt , khamm?r? and fann that is among the most famous recordings to-date in Kuwait as well as one of the most famous and most beautiful recordings of the Gulf repertoire.

What will you play for us from these recordings?

We will listen to Mu?ammad F?ris singing ?awt “Y? w??id al-?usn”.

Mr. Mub?rak al-‘Amm?r? said that during a studio break in Bahrain, D??? Bin Wulayd sang along with Mu?ammad F?ris a wedding song known throughout the Gulf countries.

What does it say?

“S?lim y? S?lim, ?h y? Salm?n”… According to some historical sources, it was written by an old mu ? riba for her son who married and then died… the mother talking to her son through the lyrics. It is also said that the son wished to marry a girl but that it did not work out, and so the mother who was a mu ? riba sang this song at the girl’s wedding, referring to her son who could not marry this girl.

The point is that either the studio’s manager or another person that was present there heard it and liked the light and fast melody –all wedding songs are known to be light and fast. He asked Mu?ammad F?ris to record it, but the latter refused saying: “I am a man and I only sing ?awt ” –which he truly did. So he asked D??? who agreed to record this fann and did. But it seems that the latter did not know the lyrics and forced Mu?ammad F?ris to take over. We will notice that the second record-side, the last quarter of the record, is performed by another mu ? rib singing “Y? D?na D?na”… It is a beautiful and light song.

During the 1930’s, all the record companies whether international or national, recorded abroad, such as SODWA in Aleppo, N‘ayyim in Baghdad, and of course Baidaphon in Baghdad.

When did SODWA record in Kuwait?

SODWA recorded at different periods: Mu?ammad F?ris in 1936, D??? Bin Wulayd in 1935, and apparently Bahraini Mu?ammad Suwayd –this is only hearsay, I never heard his record–; and ‘Abd al-La??f al-Kuwayt? in 1938.

SODWA’s recordings were all made in Aleppo, and they all included Syrian or Lebanese violinist Ily?s Fann?n who was famous at the time and is among those who participated in the 1932 Music Congress. He accompanied Mu?ammad F?ris, D??? Bin Wulayd and ‘Abd al-La??f al-Kuwayt?.

Mu?ammad F?ris and D??? were both ‘?d ists who played and sang, while ‘Abd al-La??f al-Kuwayt? was not a ‘ ?d ist. So famous Syrian ‘ ?d ist N?r? al-Mall?? was brought in to accompany him, as well as a riqq player who tutored ‘Abd al-La??f al-Kuwayt? as to Kuwaiti rhythms… and he recorded a collection of discs.

Mu?ammad F?ris was accompanied by Bahraini percussionist Jawhar al-Najd?, and D??? was accompanied by another percussionist called Bil?l.

These recordings were very successful, especially those of Mu?ammad F?ris that included less-known tunes such as “All?h y? rabb?h” and “Y? man bi-sahmih ran?”. D??? presented a collection exclusively dedicated to beautiful ?awt , and Mu?ammad F?ris only sang ?awt as I mentioned earlier. ‘Abd al-La??f performed a more varied repertoire, including a mad?? (praise) to A?mad al-J?bir and to ‘Abd al-‘Az?z ?l Su‘?d, the King of Saudi Arabia at the time and its founder. He also sang s?mir? “Y? wannit? wannat ‘al?l yud?w?nah”, one of the most famous discs ever known in the region.

Can we listen to it?

Yes.

The local national companies first appeared in the late 1940’s after the World War, and the first founder of a local record company was His Master’s Voice’s representative ‘Abd al-?usayn al-S?‘?t?. He decided to establish a record company in Bahrain and bought a recording machine from London through a newspaper ad. It reached Bahrain and he started recording.

What is the name of the record company?

It is actually a group of names for a group of companies owned by brothers who had a disagreement. Each took a different label.

But let us talk about an important issue: right after the World War, Kuwaitis and Bahrainis went to Bombay in India, and recorded under national names such as “Kuwait-phone”, “Layla-phone” or “S?lim-phone” (S?lim being the name of the producer or the mu ? rib ). They recorded in Bombay’s Gramophone studio under local names. The studio was large and there was a record-printing factory. This industry was very strong in India. People from the Gulf mainly recorded with Odeon and His Master’s Voice in Bombay, but later on some local producers decided to record under their name, such as Basra-phone owned by an Iraqi producer who recorded Kuwaiti mu ? rib in India.

Still, we are only talking about local names, not about record production in the Gulf.

The first Gulf record production happened with ‘Abd al-?usayn al-S?‘?t? and his brothers, and I think the name of the company was “Arab Discs” that had a simple blue label. They recorded a very large number of mu ? rib : any mu ? rib who played ‘ ?d recorded a disc. In this period, i.e. the late 1940’s, Bahraini song masters had passed away: Mu?ammad F?ris in 1947 and D??? in 1941. The only one left was Mu?ammad Zuwayyid who recorded a large collection. There were also Kuwaitis who went to Bahrain and made recordings… it had become very easy. Kuwaiti ‘Abd All?h Fa??la for example, a mu ? rib at the Bahrain Radio, recorded a collection of discs in Bahrain; ?amad Khal?fa, the only mu ? rib from this era who is still alive, recorded his first collection in Bahrain in the early 1950’s.

Many recording companies were established, some of them excellent, and they printed their records in London and in Bombay. The quality was excellent. Those included Ibr?h?m-phone and his brother Kurj?-phone, as well as many other names such as Bahrain-phone of course and Kuwait-phone among many others.

Since we are discussing discs… you know that the wa?la in Egypt and Syria only appeared dismantled on the discs: one could listen to the dawr , the maww?l , the muwashsha? , and the qa??da separately, but never together because their duration exceeded the capacity of the records. Can we talk about this issue regarding Kuwaiti and Bahraini recordings?

Of course. The capacity of a disc could fit one song at most, or two in some rare cases, one song on each side. This is why it was impossible for a whole wa?la , or fa?l as we call it, to be recorded in full on one disc.

Also, and this is an issue we may discuss later, the structure of the fa?l itself changed with the advent of recording. Today, fann still exist and are well performed. But the structure of the fa?l has changed since the 1920’s: today, we practice it differently from the 1920’s.

So they recorded some forms on the discs, often separately, the same as in Egypt: each song on a separate disc. And these discs will not show whether a certain song is in the beginning, the middle or the end of the jalsa , or why, and on what basis they can be distinguished one from the other. There are no explanations based on the local culture that can enlighten listeners.

Later on in the 1930’s, they opted for more commercial singing, like the ?awt that was the most requested by the listeners, followed by the other fann . Note that the recording of some fann stopped from the 1920’s until the Radio stage: they appeared a little then disappeared, and reappeared again later in the 1950’s Radio recordings. This issue may necessitate a full episode.

Then the complete fa?l was only Radio-recorded and TV-recorded…

No. It was never Radio-recorded or TV-recorded. It was always dismantled.

Always dismantled.

Always. Commercially speaking, if I wanted to listen to a fa?l , I would need to listen to the istim?‘ , the ?awt ‘arab? , the ?awt sh?m? , the ?awt khay?l? , and the khit?m … five songs that require half an hour. Yet they were not recorded in this fashion. The fa?l continued to be performed in full by the artists, in jals?t and in dawr , but it was always dismantled in the recordings.

The first Kuwaiti record company, ?ah-phone, was established by Kuwaiti ?ah ?abr?. He first recorded ‘Abd All?h Fa??la and ?amad Khal?fa in Bahrain where ?amad Khal?fa met with Bahraini and Omani mu ? rib who were recording, as he later told me. Later on in Kuwait, ?ah ?abr? established a record company and brought a machine to record the performances of the Kuwaiti and Bahraini mu ? rib , starting off the recording industry in Kuwait, followed by Ab? Zayd-phone.

When was ? ah-phone established?

In the early 1950’s, in 1952 I think. It was followed by Ab? Zayd-phone, a very successful record company that continued to make records until the 1960’s and went on selling them through the 1990’s. This company made recordings of numerous mu ? rib , including local ones, Yemeni Mu?ammad Jum‘a Kh?n, as well as Bahraini and Iraqi mu ? rib .

Are there any available archives?

There are a lot, but of course some are missing, as always.

We could listen for example to a Yemeni song performed by mu ? rib Mu?ammad Jum‘a Kh?n, recorded in Kuwait by Kuwaiti record company Ab? Zayd-phone.

Dear listeners, we have reached the end of today’s episode.

We will meet again in a new episode of “Min al-T?r?kh”.

“Min al-T?r?kh” was brought to you by Mustafa Said.