The Riff Band brings a Merry Little Christmas to Cairo

In celebration of this joyful season, Cairo has its own merry little Christmas with the Riff Band jazz concert

On Wednesday evening a large crowd gathered outside the Wisdom Hall at El Sawy Culturewheel, awaiting Egypt's most popular jazz band, the Riff Band, to kick-start their special Christmas concert.
Initially, the band was only booked to perform one concert at 8.00 pm, but as tickets were sold out, another show was added at 10.00 pm.
The show started with cheers and applause as soon as the lead vocals, Ahmed Harfoush and Noha Fekri, began to sing their first song. The audience kept arriving and although additional seats were added on both sides of the stage, it was still not enough. Many people had to stand for the entire show, but nobody seemed to mind and everyone was cheering and singing along with the band.
Popular Christmas songs
A number of the most popular Christmas songs were performed, including “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree”, “Silent Night”, “Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland”, “Let It Snow”, “ I Dream of a White Christmas”, “Santa Baby” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to name but a few. “Jingle Bell Rock” received the most applause while “Last Christmas” was surprising well-received, mostly by the ladies in the audience who joined in with the chorus.
The special song of the night was “The Twelve Days of Christmas” which was “Egyptianised”. Harfoush asked everyone to sing along to the lyrics they had been given. These included words such as koshary (traditional Egyptian dish), hamam mahshi (stuffed pigeons), ta'ameya (felafel), and torshi (pickled vegetables).
As expected, it was all a bit confusing. The audience had problems getting the melody right or even fitting in the new words. Even Fekri found it difficult to sing along with Harfoush. By the end of the song the melody, tempo and words were finally in harmony. There was lots of laughter and even Harfoush said that it was the most hysterical thing he have ever done in his life.
Star of the night
In between songs both Fekri and Harfoush improvised, jumping on and off the stage to engage the audience and spice up the night.Both enjoyed a chemistry on stage, backed up by the rest of the talented jazz musicians. Their interaction with one another and with the audience was charming. Throughout the entire concert, each musician received special applause but the star of the night was the phenomenal saxophone player, Aaron Jakes. He performed several solos and added soothing melodies to many songs.
Among the songs chosen for this special concert were Disney's “When You Wish Upon a Star” and Julie Andrew's “My Favourite Things” from the 1960s film Sound of Music.
Towards the end of the hour and a half concert, Harfoush invited members of the audience to come on stage and sing “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”. The concert ended with Fekri and Harfoush singing “Beyond The Sea”.
Spiced up with an Egyptian flavour
The Riff Band's Christmas edition was joyful and entertaining but what it lacked was a Christmas-themed stage, with lots of colours and decorations. It is a cheerful season and the black-draped background with big, silver snowflakes wasn't seasonal enough. But on the whole, Riff Band's version of Christmas was so much fun, spiced up with an Egyptian flavour.
The Riff Band's Christmas concert series continues on Saturday18 December at La Gourmandise cafe, ground floor, First Mall, Four Seasons Giza building and on Saturday 25 December at the Cairo Jazz club.
The Riff Band are both Egyptian and foreign musicians; on vocals Ahmed Harfoush and Noha Fekri, drummer Amr Kheiry, bass guitarist Samer George, and pianist Hisham Galal. The trumpeter is Dimitri Dimitrov, the trombonist is Viktor Liskov and the saxophonist is Aaron Jakes. The band was founded in 2002 and is considered one the leading jazz bands in Egypt