Rania Khallaf tunes in to the modern voice of Sayed Darwish It took only few years for to acquire its fame and an audience. Formed like many other musical groups in Egypt in 2005, the band with its focus on Sayed Darwish and Sheikh Imam Eissa's music immediately clicked with audiences of all ages. My first encounter with the band was just a few months after their first performance at Saqiyat Al-Sawy. Three years is not a long time to allow for assessment, but one could say that the band has truly succeeded in attracting more and more audiences of all walks of life, including foreigners, in Cairo. The name is a mix of " Eskendria ", the colloquial name for Alexandria, and Cinderella. "We find it an attractive and expressive name. "It tells much about us: we are the Cinderella of modern singing and Eskendria is our beloved city, where Sayed Darwish was born," says Shadi Mo'ness, oud player and one of the founders of the band. Although it is not the only band to enlist Egyptian heritage songs into its repertoire, remains an authentic voice of Sayed Darwish's music. Chanting traditional music is not the only key to the band's smashing success. Peerless performances by Hazem Shahine on the oud make all the difference. Shahine, the band's founder, is one of the very few brilliant oud players in Egypt and the Middle East. He studied for a year and a half at the Higher Institute for Arabic Music, and in 1999 he joined Bayt Al-Oud, a semi-formal institution established and headed by prominent Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma and funded by the Cultural Development Fund. There, and within a few years, he became one of the trainers on the oud and a key player at concerts and events. His fame has soared with his participation in local and international classical Arabic music concerts in Egypt, Lebanon and Bahrain. Last week, gave three consecutive performances in Alexandria and Cairo. It is one of Ramadan's blessings that the band has played a role in offering such a competitive artistic atmosphere in Cairo during the holy month. The British Council in Agouza hosted one of these concerts, which attracted more audiences than expected because of the joint performance of with the Upper Egyptian Choir. Now in his 30s, Shahine is modest about his achievements and yet a little uncertain. "I believe in what I am doing, but I am not sure about the future. Nothing is guaranteed, even the taste of audiences. It could change overnight." Two years after the formation of the band, Shahine has started cooperating with prominent ammiya poets Amin and Ahmed Haddad (son and grandson of legendary poet Fouad Haddad), and this has added a new flavour to his music. Amin Haddad believes that what makes different than other musical groups is the sincere effort that Shahine gives to searching for the original musical scores of Darwish and Eissa. "What really distinguishes the group's performance is the kind of music they play. It is not just old music, it is the kind of forbidden or censored songs that criticise societal problems: corruption, and the interference of foreign powers in internal issues, as well as other issues that, though performed some 50 years ago, are still valid to this very day," he says. Infatuated by Darwish, Shahine is keen to play his songs in their original composition; not even as presented later by prominent singers such as Fairouz. For Shahine, Darwish's songs "are not old stuff. They are still full of life, sarcasm, and lightness. They are songs of resistance, which will never die." The band members are all close friends, something that reflects in the sincerity of their performances. They excel in harmonic singing, except in a few songs where Shahine sings solo. Shahine's performance is matchless. From the very first minute, you realise that you are watching a black and white performance from the 1950s. Holding his oud tightly; he sways to the rhythm and then bounces up when the pitch is high. The seven band members, all dressed in white, put the audience in a different musical mood where old and modern tunes melt together. Darwish and Fouad Haddad's songs are crisscrossed with junior Ahmed Haddad songs which, albeit somewhat lighter, carry the same spirit; they are creative, critical, and fervent with passionate feelings about life, simple people, and even towards simple things we do every daily such as in his interesting song, Dora Mashwi (Grilled Corn), in which he speaks romantically of simple folk eating a simple food with their loved ones on the Nile bank. An heir of Haddad and Salah Jaheen, one of the very interesting songs written by Ahmed Haddad and played in the concert by Maie Haddad, a promising young singer, goes: "My grandpa was wearing a cap, and granny was wearing a bonnet,..", a poem from Haddad's collection entitled Some Little Dust published in 2007. Haddad does not see himself as a song writer, but rather "a poet, whose poetry can be produced musically by a talented composer like Shahine." Shahine started to work with the Upper Egyptian Choir a year ago. "It was when we were preparing for a musical night called 'My Country is Beautiful', the songs for which were written by Fouad Haddad and Salah Jaheen," he says. "Ever since that experience, I never stopped working with them. They have a unique musical spirit that perfectly matches with our mood." Rehearsals for this concert started three months ahead, a difficult task, especially in that the members of the chorus are mostly young children and teenagers. In addition to the regular songs of Sayed Darwish, the band together with the choir performed folk songs from Minya. Made up mainly of young girls, the choir sings with a hint of a rural tone, especially in some solo and romantic songs, and songs criticising the way men still regard modern working women. Equally excellent was the singing of the choir together with , especially in chanting Sayed Darwish songs which infuse a unique sense of enjoyment, fulfilment and enthusiasm. "My dream is to continue my effort in reinforcing this special kind of group singing and develop a new kind of operetta for the theatre, a hard task that may or may not be realised in our times, mainly because producers in Egypt abstain from that kind of 'serious artistic production." Following in his grandfather's footsteps, Ahmed Haddad together with Shahine four years ago began holding poetical nights in which Haddad performed poetry and Shahine composed on the oud. Each of these nights had a special theme and spirit. "These nights attracted more audiences than we expected. The success forced me to think of developing the idea into a modern operetta, a genre which is now completely missing in the cultural scene," Haddad says. The operetta was a popular genre in Egypt in the first half of the 20th century, when it was a perfect tool for criticising social ills and was also perfectly reachable for those with a simple education. The persisting obstacle hindering this dream from happening is surely the production system in Egypt. "I, personally, have no contacts with producers, and I am not sure how this project could materialise. It might happen with the cooperation of some new bands together. I am hopeful that with the sudden surge of music groups in Egypt, many concepts will change as well, including those controlling artistic production," he says.
