Hamza El Din

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Toshka, Egypt (1929 – 2006)

Hamza El Din (b. Toshka, Egypt, July 10, 1929 - d. Berkeley, California, May 22, 2006), was a Nubian oud player, tar player, and vocalist. Born in the village of Toshka, near Wadi Halfa, he is considered by some to have been the father of modern nubian music. Originally trained to be an electrical engineer, El Din changed direction and began to study music at the Cairo University, continuing his studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His performances attracted the attention of the Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan in the 1960s, which led to a recording contract and to his eventual emigration to the United States. Like much of egyptian Nubia, his home village of Toshka was flooded due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, creating in El Din a drive to preserve and promote his culture.

His 1968 recording Escalay: The Water Wheel is recognized as one of the first world music recordings to gain wide release in the West, and was claimed as an influence by some American minimalist composers, such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley.[1] He performed with the Kronos Quartet.

El Din held a number of teaching positions in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, eventually settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. He died on Monday, May 22, 2006, at the age of 76, after complications following surgery for a gallbladder infection at a hospital in Berkeley, California. He is survived by his wife, Nabra.

His official website is http://www.hamzaeldin.com

Tagged as:

oud, world, nubian, african, arabic
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Escalay (The Water Wheel)
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Eclipse
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Top Tracks

1	Greetings full track	42
1	The Visitors	42
3	The Water Wheel	31
4	I Remember	29
4	Song with Tar	29
6	Desse Barama (Peace) full track	23
7	Sdag Og (Beleive!)	14
8	Nubala (Nubiana) full track	13
8	Fegir Nedan (Call To Worship) full track	13
10	Mwashah	9
11	Greeting Card full track	8
11	Er'Rasoul/The Messenger full track	8
11	Sha Esh'shamusa/Delicate Sun full track	8
14	Nabra/ Gold Ore full track	7
15	The Fortune Teller full track	6

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raef_ismail wrote:
29 days ago

Hamza here is playing the music of " Mohamed Abd ElWahab " from "om Kolthoum's " song " Fakarouni" , which means : they reminded me , and from which Hamza called this track " I remember "

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B0di wrote:
August 2009

You didn't make that point clear in the first post.... informally Asian mean "Mongolian" people from East and Southeast Asia..I'm Nubian so I know what I'm talking about.. Culturally speaking Nubians are Arabs. Like most of the Arab countries that had it's own languages and cultures but in the end they formed a mix between them and the Arabic culture... And why not 100% cause there are Nubian tribes in chad and the surrounding areas

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-tgt- wrote:
August 2009

hmm.. Syria is in southwest Asia not in the Caucasus. There's no "Asian race" it's the most phenotypically diverse continent on the planet (no surprise being the largest by far), There are Caucasoid Asians like in Saudia and Iran, There are East Asians there are even Black Asian people like the Andaman Islanders and Aborigine Southeast Asian peoples like the Aeta in the Philipines and the Mani of Thailand. And 90%? why not 100% at that? It is an unspoken scientific fact that most of the north Sudanese are Arabized Nubians, they don't see themselves as Nubians, does that make em 90% Nubian?

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B0di wrote:
August 2009

Commenting on the post below me,... 90% of the Nubians are Arabs!! ( most of them are concentrated in Egypt and Sudan) they speak Arabic beside their own Nubian language,, You were right about the Language point,,, but the Syrians became suddenly Asian?!! I know it's in Asia but they are of Caucasian ethnicity and Arabic culture!

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-tgt- wrote:
August 2009

Arab is a national denomination based on language. What unites all Arabs isn't religion or even a fixed ethnicity it's the language and the culture is based around this beautiful language. There are black Arabs (Sudan) and white Arabs(Iraq), there are Asian Arabs (Syria) and there are African Arabs (Morocco). And btw, Hamza wasn't an Arab he was a Nubian.

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Cacophonaut wrote:
August 2009

Lol why do you ascribe people roles based on idiotic cliches? Did you consider the fact that most of North Africa is Islamic, and much of the dress and idiosyncrasies of "Arab" culture are rooted in Islam? Man, do you watch Fox News or something? You have a very warped and ignorant view of the world.

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s-p-morticiAN wrote:
July 2009

Lol why do Africans want to be Arabs?

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khaled911 wrote:
July 2009

One of the most beautiful songs in the world musicology musicology Nuban

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swwan wrote:
June 2009

calms me down like nothing else

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happyrhythm wrote:
May 2009

relax

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yousif1 wrote:
April 2009

great singer. great music.

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Philosonic wrote:
March 2009

RIP. Your nubian heritage will live for ever in your music.

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tanxi wrote:
March 2009

lovely music

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B0di wrote:
December 2008

All Time Long Although I can't understand any word but I feel Happy :D

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dgallego wrote:
September 2008

great!

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Pinkawy wrote:
September 2008

Viva Egypt ! :)

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ennis62 wrote:
August 2008

Wow, at last I found out whose music is in the final scenes of the film "Passion in the Desert"!!!! It's beautiful, too beautiful for words...

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gulsch92 wrote:
July 2008

beautiful.

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silentinfinite wrote:
June 2008

Wonderful music.

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Grindfucked wrote:
June 2008

"great band"? it's one person..

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