Yasmine Fathi talks to Ammar Dajani, proprietor of the Cairo Jazz Club, about the independent music scene The music scene has long been ruled by pop. So where can musicians and listeners go for something different? In recent years, the Cairo Jazz Club has become one of Cairo's hottest spots, set apart from other outlets by the inspiration that led to its creation. "We had a vision," says Ammar Dajani, one of the club's owners. "Other people might have a business plan, but they don't want to make a contribution to the community. When I was 19 years old, I had aspirations to be a musician. I looked around me thinking, there is no way I can become a professional musician, except if I go abroad. But I'm a Middle Easterner and I want to stay!" The obstacle Dajani faced was the lack of an independent music scene. "By independent music, I mean not pop and not industry fabricated," he explains. "There is a lot of musicians in Cairo, and they did not become musicians just so they can record other people's music. There is definitely a spark of creativity, of self-expression, that they were pursuing." For these musicians, the problem is not the lack of studios. As Dajani points out, Cairo is the recording centre of the Middle East. In addition, it has three music schools: the School for Musical Education, the Arabic Music Institute, and the Conservatoire." So the infrastructure is there, but it is aimed to support the pop industry only," Dajani explains. "Our problem is not with the pop industry, our problem is that there is only the pop industry." It was in this context that Dajani and three of his friends, Akram El-Sherif, Karim Rateb and Alex Rizq, had hung around, jamming and chatting, trying to find the components that would create the independent scene that they craved for. "The most obvious missing component was the stage," says Dajani. "Any artist has to have the channel through which to address his audience. If he fails it should be his fault, not because he is unable to find a place to reach them." Thus the Cairo Jazz Club was born. However, because the vision behind the club was fairly new, the partners found themselves facing an uphill struggle. "We had to push the musicians to work at a certain quality, and at the same time we had to explain to the audience. A lot of people don't know that there is music like that in the first place!" says Dajani. "We had to say to the people, Come and see! These people deserve to be listened to!" The four partners had to make sure the club was a viable business, as well as an innovative stage for unpaid young talents. "If we put all the talk about art to one side, these people have to make money. They have to live. They have families to feed, they want to be happy like everybody else," says Dajani. "We had to be able to generate money for the musicians, so that they would have more interest in working on the independent scene." Even though jazz is the chosen genre of the club, Dajani says they are open minded about the bands that are allowed to play. "We are not very strict about the definition of jazz. In fact we use a very broad definition," he admits. "There was a famous jazz pianist who said jazz is the ethnic music of today. Jazz is about improvisation, jazz is about integrating. So 'jazz' does not just mean the old style jazz. There is something called a jazz club. It is not a restaurant, it is not a bar, it is not a music hall, but it is all this. So it is more about being a jazz club than it is about being jazz." This devotion to improvisation is a feature of the club that has attracted hundreds of musicians over the years. "Improvisation is one of the highest points of playing," explains Dajani. "It is very tricky, the risk of messing up is very high, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't." The risk musicians take when they improvise is appreciated by an audience that is tired of a mono-diet of the commercialised product in which the contemporary pop industry specialises. "The other day I was watching a documentary about the Spice Girls," Dajani recounts. "They are a total fabrication! A manager came and said, I want one redhead, one blonde, one brunette. The moves were ready. He auditioned a thousand girls and he chose those ones, and they became the Spice Girls. That's how the industry works." With a club that offers jazz, live music, and improvisation, things are very different. "With improvisation, people feel they are part of what is happening," explains Dajani, growing passionate. "Sometimes you can almost see it. You can feel the energy flow off of the stage, into the people, and the people sending it back to the stage. People walk up to the stage and the circle grows a little bit bigger. The best bands we have are the ones who are able to make the circle go all over -- straight through the place and back again." Over the past few years, this unique spirit has attracted a very diverse crowd. "We must be the most heterogeneous spot in town. We get people from the age of 20 to 61," Dajani says. The club even counts among its clients representatives of the pop industry who are scouting for new artists. "We have had at least two artists who were sucked from their bands," he says, ruefully. "They take them and commercialise them." Dajani points out that he is often asked how he explains the success of his club. His answer is always simple. "We are about good moods. What we sell is good moods: through our kitchen, through our bar, and our stage. A good time -- an unpretentious good time."
