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Mideast festival allows melodies to bridge divide
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Chicago Tribune, Mideast festival allows melodies to bridge divide >>
By Howard Reich
You know a festival is working on a tight budget when the director asks the audience to help break down the tents after the show.
But that was just one of the charms of an utterly disarming celebration of Middle Eastern culture that transformed Lincoln Park over the weekend.
With a remarkable lineup of Arab, Israeli and Chicago performers singing ultra-exotic fare, joggers did double-takes, roller-bladers rubber-necked (as they whooshed by) and a large crowd ate up every note.
In short, this wasn't your typical Sunday in the park.
In fact, everything about this enterprise--the somewhat laboriously titled "HAMSA: From the Middle East to the Midwest" festival--defied conventional wisdom on the nature of Mideast culture.
Societies that have been at war came seamlessly together on this occasion, producing sublime melody-making and serene instrumental improvisation. The contrast between the sensuous beauty of this music and the war-torn part of the world that produced it suggested that perhaps artists ought to be put in charge of the peace process in the Mideast.
"We all know the situation there is not good," the Israeli singer and oud player Yair Dalal told the crowd, acknowledging the difficult political backdrop of the festival.
"All we can do is play music and send our energy over there."
But Dalal and the other musicians who played from noon until nightfall did more than that, bringing unfamiliar sounds to Chicago listeners who stayed late to savor it and altering perceptions on the way everyday Arabs and Jews interrelate--at least when music is in the air.
No moment better summed up the power of this second annual festival than the finale, when Dalal shared the stage with the singer-songwriter Naser Musa, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent. The sound of Musa's imploring tenor dovetailed exquisitely with Dalal's sweetly understated baritone, two voices as distinct as they were harmonious.
Behind them, members of the Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble--which specializes in concert repertoire of Middle Eastern composers--provided a lustrous instrumental accompaniment. And the Children of the Sea Choir, a buoyant Milwaukee gospel choir (of all things), chimed in with high-pitched humming.
Earlier in the afternoon, an impressive range of cultural expression played out on the smallish stage.
The term "multi-instrumentalist" gets tossed around rather loosely these days, but the Turkish master Omar Faruk Tekbilek redefined it, drawing intricate lines on the nay (a traditional bamboo flute), a tone that could cut through steel on the zurna (a double-reed instrument) and a torrent of rhythms on a variety of percussion instruments.
Though every musician in Pharaoh's Daughter proved first-rate, the radiant vocals of leader Basya Schechter and the astonishing virtuosity of recorder player Daphna Mor stood out. (Mor, in fact, stands as a force unto herself.)
Add to this the lush ensemble textures of the SHARQ Arabic Music Ensemble and the poetic, jazz-meets-Hebraic musings of a trio staffed by cantor Alberto Mizrahi, harmonica master Howard Levy and percussion wizard Paul Wertico (all Chicagoans), and there was no shortage of sonic pleasures.
Even the festival's inevitable glitches seemed slight in comparison to the successes.
As for the name HAMSA, it's an Arabic word connoting good luck, which might be required to remember the full name of this event. 08/30/05 >> go there
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