Nesmahar Sayed spent a night with Al-Tanboura, where she could listen to the sea Ramadan nights bring with them the scent of the past. The decorations and lanterns in the streets, the prayers and the sound of azan from the mosques mean that both residents and foreigners in Egypt look forward to the holy month and its nights. These nights have become an opportunity to replay traditional and historical events. One event that many Egyptians and foreigners of all ages attended with great enjoyment was the performance by the that took place at the Al-Genena Theatre in Al-Azhar Park. The two-hour performance began at 9pm and was received with great admiration and enthusiasm by the audience, who clapped in time with the rhythm and even danced on stage with the troupe in a spontaneous reaction to the popular tunes and lively performance of the 20 musicians, most of whom both danced and sang. "We are used to this admiration and welcome wherever we go," Zakaria Ibrahim, the founder of Al-Tanboura, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The instruments used by the troop are the tanboura (a large, six-stringed lyre), the simsimiya (a small lyre with five strings), the tabla (Oriental drum), mossallas (triangle), re' (tambourine) and sagat. With the group celebrating its 20th anniversary, this is a special year for the members, all of whom come from Port Said. Ibrahim told the audience how the changes that took place after the introduction of President Anwar El-Sadat's Open Door policy affected the cultural heritage of the canal city. "The simsimiya is no longer the traditional one. Now the target is profit rather than saving the old heritage," Ibrahim said sadly. In reaction against this milieu Ibrahim performed a song that went, "I will tell you the news and the story, we have been like this for 20 years, completing our way, struggling against the stream." Ahmed Megahed, now 70 and the oldest member, plays the triangle and has been with the group from the beginning. Members of the audience whistled in admiration and encouragement as the band called the name of Rayes Zakaria, showing that his efforts are well rewarded. "We have our audiences who memorise our songs and follow our performances," said Hajar Mohamed, a teenager who follows the group for a chance to join in the dancing on stage at night. Simsimiya player Mohsen El-Ashri runs his own business, but has been with the group for seven years and takes charge of the junior band, Bara'em Al-Tanboura (Tanboura Buds). "I teach the children singing, dancing and instrumentals," El-Ashri told the Weekly. The difference between the senior and junior bands is that the latter has members of both sexes. The seniors have no female members, so when a song involves flirtation with a lover both parts are sung by a male singer, and one troupe member wears a headscarf to enact the role of the lover. Rayes Zakaria, as audiences like to greet him, speaks of the success of his performances in Egypt and abroad. "I founded the group with only seven members, and then it grew until we had 20," he says. Their songs come from the towns along the canal -- Suez, Ismailia and Port Said and their local cultural heritage. They are traditionally sung at weddings and other celebrations. Ibrahim remembers old men who were members of the founding band and have passed away. "I had to choose members who memorised that heritage," he says. He himself used to sing to the tunes of simsimiya at secondary school in Port Said. After the 1967 defeat, he was forced to move to Cairo, where he studied at Cairo University. There he took part in the students movement in the 1970s, and in 1980 he returned to Port Said to discover that the old heritage no longer existed and the free zone area had changed the taste of the market. He saw it as a necessity to form his band. Hundreds of performances in Egypt and abroad testify that Ibrahim does the job a ministry could do. Egypt's cultural heritage is a treasure to him although, according to him, it doesn't make a profit. "It's enough in itself," he says. It was this that led him to establish the Mastaba Centre for Egyptian Folk Music, which aims at reviving Egyptian heritage through gathering older artists who stopped singing as a result of current trends. The centre also documents popular Egyptian music through video, audio, photographs and archival studies. It has amassed a large archive of popular Egyptian music, and organises folk music festivals for genuine acts from all over the country. According to the Al-Tanboura website www.eltanbura.com, the band is a collection of veteran Egyptian master musicians, singers, fishermen and philosophers, all dressed in an eclectic mix of galabiyas, and Levis with Gucci sunglasses, fezzes and Nike caps. One of Al-Tanboura's albums, Port Said's Simsimiya, was produced in 1996 by the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Others were Weeping Pigeon, I Love the Moon, and the first production between a British recording company and the Mastaba Centre was called Between Desert and Sea. Ibrahim told the Weekly that by next January they will launch their new album, Bambouti's Friends. Although everything appears to be going well for the group and its members, Ibrahim still feels that he lacks recognition. "All I am doing is the result of my personal efforts and relations," he laments. And with a brave face he turns to the fans who are clamouring to shake his hand.
