A spicy koshari was what crossed my mind when I was told about this concert. Never mind the performance – we'll get back to it. First, I must tell you about the koshari and… some real music lovers, known as the Esmat family. The father, Esmat Kamal, is a huge music fan, the mother, Hoda Morgan, likes music very much. More importantly, they remind everyone of the very kind Egyptian families we see in old movies. The youngest daughter, Nahla, was the manger of some bands and is now a big shot at Rawabet Culture Centre. She is also engaged to talented sound engineer Essam El-Saharty. The middle daughter, Noha, is married to Sameh, who once bought me a spicy koshari – the only thing this has to do with music is that it's bad for vocal chords, so don't try it at home, or anywhere else! I still remember that on that koshari evening I felt like I were on stage with everyone staring at me while I was eating all that chili. Incidentally, this couple has two lovely daughters called Hagar and Salma. That leaves us with the eldest daughter Nehad, who was a Band Manager before working for a horrible place that supposedly presents arts and luckily she quit. She has two lovely kids called Layla and Yehia and their father is Mohamed Seif El-Yazal, the same man who formed Pyramids Jazz Band in 1998. After a long break, this band returned to perform a concert at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, on Tuesday, July 6. Now you know about koshari and the whole family. Do I still have some space to write about the concert? Bibliotheca Alexandrina sends a bus to Cairo to drive artists back and forth and on that trip I joined the band members, minus Mohamed, who went to Alex a day before. The lineup consists of pianist Bassem Mofeed Gamil, saxophonist Shady Ahmad and drummer Moustafa Abbas. We were also accompanied by a friend and a fan of the band, called Nabil Saad. It was good company and we had an enjoyable drive, but when we got to Alex I didn't have the chance to eat crab! We made it to Bibliotheca Alexandrina few minutes after five, just in time for the sound check. Shortly afterwards we met Mayada Saeed, who is the only real Stage Manager I've ever met. She takes care of all the simple details to make sure artists are happy and that everything is as good as it should be. That day was no exception – everything was in place, even artists names on the doors of their rooms. Bravo Mayada. I raided the artists' rooms for short interviews before the concert. I had to ask why was the band away for so long and Mohamed answered "my wife beats me up because she is totally against music and…" Well I think he actually said "it's been four or five years since our last concert because I wasn't happy with most of the venues. Some give you a percentage of the revenue so you end up paying much more than you make and at the end they act as if they're doing you a favour. They don't approach artists – we have to go and beg for concerts and end up getting one or two a year. This is not the proper atmosphere artists should work in. Our last five concerts were at Bibliotheca Alexandrina because it's a well organised place. But even here the theme for summer festivals were not suitable for our music and when they wanted to have a "Nostalgia" theme, I knew it's the right one to present old jazz. Incidentally, our very first concert was given to us by Maestro Sherif Mohie, who was in charge of the Cairo Citadel Festival at the time and today our comeback concert was given to us by the same man – he is very supportive." I totally agree. Bassem, who is a relatively old member of the band, is happy with the comeback "we get along fine, on personal and music basis. I'm quite optimistic about this," he said. Moustafa said "I'm happy with this lineup. We all enjoy playing jazz. I hope the fun lasts. Unfortunately musicians don't get any support in Egypt. Artists should be encouraged to reach the international level. However, I believe that we will do fine and won't get frustrated." It was Shady's first performance with Pyramids and he said "I was told by Bassem and Moustafa that Mohamed is looking for a saxophonist and I was happy to join because they are friends of mine". It's show time… or five minutes past it! Yes, they were a little late and the attendance was poor, but that seems to be the trend in Alexandria. People there hardly attend anything! Besides, there was one of those World Cup matches at the same time, which of course affects the attendance. But, it seems they did like the band in general very much because they applauded earnestly when the first number was over. Incidentally, it was "Work Song". Before starting the second number, "All Blues", Mohamed greeted the audience then mentioned the names of the first and second tracks. The works presented were composed by legends like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and to perform these technically hard numbers in such a good way gives Pyramids band a lot of credibility. The output was very good and so was the sound, engineered by Essam El-Saharty. Even the weather was delightful, although it was quite hot earlier in the evening. As expected in jazz concerts, each of the artists had 72 zillion solos, but no one had a problem with that because they were quite enjoyable and naturally the melody phrases were mainly played by Bassem or Shady. The latter excelled, in his purple shirt and funny hat. One of the best things I like about Bassem is that he plays difficult music in a way that makes it seem easy, which proves how capable he is. Moustafa looked as if he was having a ball on stage and Mohamed has a strange passion for his contrabass, as if he is married to it! The tempo of some tracks was a little slower than usual and something funny happened, although I didn't notice it myself, but I was later told about it by Bassem – in the middle of his playing it seems he accidentally pressed a button which started the piano's prerecorded demo, so it played a different tune by itself. Luckily he managed to stop it quickly and I guess no one noticed! The set consisted of 14 tracks and they played nine instrumentals in a row, which frankly made things sound monotonous until Mohamed introduced the band's guest, talented singer Sarah Enany, who woke the crowd up just by appearing on stage and I do believe they also loved her singing. She started her four consecutive songs with the epic "Mack the Knife". Then she performed "In a Sentimental Mood", composed by someone I like because Stevie Wonder immortalised him in his timeless "Sir Duke" – yes Duke Ellington. Two standards followed, "The Girl From Ipanema" – with its English and Portuguese lyrics – and "Oleo". Sarah has a good voice and a perfect accent, but there were a few drawbacks that evening – although she hid it well, her voice revealed her stage fright, which is probably why she went off key a few times. Sarah also used too much vibrato on all numbers. Moreover, she sang jazz in the Broadway Musicals' style. They finished at 10:30 with another instrumental – the one with a relatively moderate tempo called "Manteca". It wasn't the right choice to end the concert with because you should always save the most energetic pieces for the end to excite the audience. Now I'll tell you how you could prank people easily – by saying whatever, no matter how unbelievable, while looking very serious. As the band was on stage I was approached by this man who asked me what was going on and I replied "It's my birthday and those guys decided to throw a small party for me to celebrate. Did you bring me a gift?" The poor man answered "Sorry, I didn't know it's your birthday!" WHAT? I was standing there minding my own business and he came to me when he could have asked someone else. Send me crabs to: [email protected]
