Aly El-Guindy meets with Nagham Masri, a band seeking to inject relevance into contemporary pop lyrics When a pebble falls into waves it is hardly noticed, but when it falls into a calm, still lake it creates wide reaching ripples. Hundreds of young Cairene fans were queuing in front of the El- Sawy Cultural Centre to attend Nagham Masri's performance -- the band has built a substantial following in a relatively short time, having first performed, a little over three years ago, at the Citadel. "I'm not going on stage to sing. I'm going up to protest," says Sherbini Ahmad, lead vocalist, founder and driving force behind the band. "Protest should not only be the right of the street, they must also be on the stage. We protest the cultural face of Egypt." The inspiration -- and the words -- behind Sherbini's music are those of the , the celebrated colloquial poet whose words, sung by Shiekh Imam in the 1970s, provided a rallying point, and a model, for protest. The political, social and cultural arenas were all subjected to Negm's withering criticism of conditions in Egypt: as a result the pair were arrested many times. "If it was not for Negm, Nagham Masri would not exist," says Sherbini. "I went up to Negm's roof top and I came down a different person... I used to go up there with books and come down with books. I met all kinds of people on that roof top: poor, rich, artists, poets, writers, and psychologists. They spoke freely and simply about things I would have been too scared to even think about alone." Sherbini, who used to write music for TV ads, composed a setting for Negm's Kelmetan le Masr (Two Words for Egypt) before he met the poet. A mutual friend of Negm and Sherbini liked the composition and took Sherbini to meet the poet. Negm heard the song, liked it, and gave Sherbini another poem, Haretna ( Our Alley/ Mosquitoes and sewers/ Lanterns and mirrors/ Stones and chairs/ Youth on street corners/ Chins on bellies and sweat on pennies/ Cracks in the houses and houses in the cracks ). Sherbini worked on a setting then and there, sang it, the poet liked it, and the rest, as they say, is history, however recent. Impressed, Negm told Sherbini that he could use any of his texts. "I started composing settings for his poems, El Toba (Penance), Mor El- Kalam (Bitter Words)... and I listened to the songs of Sheikh Imam. I found myself entering a completely new territory. I came down from Negm's roof with the idea of Nagham Masri formed in my head." Negm then asked Sherbini to perform Kelmetan le Masr and Haretna at this 70th birthday celebration at Cinema Renaissance. It was Sherbini's first solo performance and the positive reaction of the audience encouraged him to pursue the Nagham Masri project. The first to come on board was Ousso, the guitar player, followed by Wael Badrawi, pianist, Fekri Salah, drums, and Rafeek on bass. "We became a bit like a family," says Sherbini. And together they worked on ten compositions, including lyrics by Amal Donqol and Salah Jahin alongside those of Negm. This was the set they performed at their first public appearance, at the Citadel. Three years later they are by now familiar faces on a circuit that includes the Opera House, AUC, the French Cultural Centre and El-Sawy Cultural Centre. "We are subject to conditions and it is the conditions that dictate what you can really feel in terms of words," says Sherbini. "It's simply that I found that the words of these people express the current situation perfectly. They say things that are not being said today. There is a point of view behind their work and I fell in love with that point of view." And so, from the reaction of the audience, have they. So has Negm found himself a new Sheikh Imam? Not quite: instead of Sheikh Imam's oud there are now bass and drums and electric guitar to accompany the words and singing. Yet despite the cross- cultural mélange what emerges is a very Egyptian melody. "It is the person behind the instrument that produces the sound," Sherbini says, "and not the instrument itself." Sherbini's warm voice and infectious energy quickly establish a rapport with the audience. "We are theatrical performers; we always like to play live," he says. The pace of the music is quick and melodic, the beat energetic and optimistic. It sometimes moves the body with its rhythm and sometimes moves the mind. Sherbini is searching the contemporary heritage to find words that are at once critical, relevant and deeply rooted in the Egyptian society to counteract what he sees as a slump in the current pop scene. "I am looking for words in the age of no words" is how he explains the quest. "The name Nagham Masri (Egyptian Melodies) refers to the selection of writings by Negm and his generation of artists. The composition and the music come second to the words. First I memorise the words; then I add the music. Just like when a sculptor sees the figure in the rock, I see the music in the word."
