When fans of world music think of Africa, they often conjure up poly rhythms, unrelenting drum beats and some exotic instruments thrown into the mix.  Occasionally an insightful story comes with the production of an album as is the case with Nubian percussionist Mahmoud Fadl's part 3 of The Drummers on the Nile trilogy.  Of course, his latest recording, Cairosonic (The Drummers of the Nile in Town), goes beyond just offering a quest for a specific brass band.  An array of talented musicians, including, Fadl (duhula, duff, conga, sandouk mesri), Magdi Berbish (darabuka, duff), Mohamed "Kallo" Sobhi (on the tambourine-like riq), Mohsen Allam (accordion), Sayed Shams (kawala), the Khalil Ibrahim family on mizmar (a clarinet like horn) and percussion, including 13 year old percussionist Magi Khalil Ibrahim and the six member Hasaballah Brass Band.  Twenty-three instruments weave an exotic tapestry of power beats, brass, woodwinds and accordion that could be showcased in dance clubs, deejay mixes or for a dance workout.  One listen to the Kush remix of Bellah Aament attests to the above statement.

When Mahmoud moved to Cairo with his family in 1967, a youthful brass band caught his attention.  At that time the band was hired for newly wed children when they moved house or to celebrate a man being liberated from prison.  The memory of seeing this brass band never left Mahmoud's mind even after he traveled around the world.  Fast forward to present time, Mahmoud returned to Cairo on a quest to locate this brass band to complete his The Drummers of the Nile trilogy.  He contacted riq player, Mohamed Sobhi (Kallo) to help him with his quest.  They ran into various obstacles in locating the musicians from the defunct Hasaballah Brass Band, yet, other musicians such as, Magdi Berbish, Mohsen Allam, Sayed Shams and the Khalil family came on board for the recording.  And just as Mahmoud was about to give up his search, six of the brass band members appeared at the recording studio due to word of mouth of Mahmoud's quest.

While Mahmoud had only known the brass band members furniture movers, he later learned of their origins, of the court musicians of King Faruk of Egypt.  However, due to a political climate change that occurred in the 1950's, (they worked as court musicians until Nasser came into power), the musicians were reduced to serenading newly weds or liberated prisoners. That was then and this is now.  The veteran musicians recorded 14 tracks for this album thus arriving back on the scene and allowing a surprise ending to Mahmoud's quest.  World music fans seeking an exotic percussion album can also experience a pleasant ending to their quest. Slip  this disc into the stereo and crank up the volume.  www.piranha.de