Writing this article is going to be quite hard. How could you sum up in one article the countless achievements of a star, who has been in the music business for about 40 years? This person is also a pioneer in many fields and his name is always associated with world music and music fusions. It seems that his work inspired numerous artists, who are now quite successful. This artist is musician, composer, arranger and music producer Fathy Salama. I could go on for hours and frankly when I read the CV he mailed me I thought there's no way I could include all that in one article. Until I become the official Editor of the Fathy Salama Encyclopedia, the best thing to do is to write a short introduction, just to remind you who he is. Then we'll get straight to the main point of the interview, which is the numerous workshops he's been conducting for some years now. This man played and produced various genres like pop, rock, punk, jazz, classic and Arabic music, before focusing on his world music fusions. In 1989 he formed the band Sharkiat, which released two albums only. But Fathy is always busy working with international acts, touring, making movie scores and winning awards. That reminds me… One of his most memorable achievements has to be the Grammy Award " yes in 2004 the album “Egypt” was released and it won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. “Egypt” was a collaboration between Fathy and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. I remember back then I was thrilled to know that an Egyptian won such a prestigious award. Did I mention the BBC Award as well? What about his other achievements? I won't have the space to tell you everything, so we better start talking about the workshops. I've had many unfortunate experiences with musicians, who claimed they had their own style, then were exposed once we went to a studio and started playing. Ignorance is no problem, but insisting on staying ignorant is a disaster. I know that most people in Egypt don't have access to good coaches, so I'm a strong supporter of these workshops. • Fathy, when did you start your workshops? “I've been giving them since the mid 1990s in numerous European countries, as well as many American States. When abroad, I focus on Arabic music, but in a way foreigners can understand because it's totally different from their music. Even the scales are not similar and have different names. However, I explain things in a way they can relate to and I also harmonise these scales to make them accessible to foreigners.” • It's really great to introduce our local music to the world and I know you've been doing a wonderful job with that by also performing concerts all over the world. What about the local workshops? “I first thought about giving workshops in Egypt when I realised that this country has countless bands and musicians, who perform live in many venues. Unfortunately, some don't have the knowledge or experience. Sometimes you listen to a number and think it's good but the way it was done is really bad. To refine a song you have to have the proper technical background, which is generally missing and I thought that the missing parts had to be added. The final result has to be good regardless of the genre you play. So for instance, if you like rock, make rock music, but properly. I think my first workshop in Egypt was in 2002 and the one that ended days ago was my 15th. I've given workshops at the Cairo Jesuit, Alexandria Jesuit, Emad El-Deen Theatre and of course Geneina Theatre of Azhar Park, where the last one was held, with renowned Norwegian jazz band The Source. Along with the foreign international artists who participate, we also have highly experienced local artists to cover as many instruments as possible. So if we have a guitar student, we have someone to teach him what he needs to learn.” • How do people reach you? “We promote these workshops for a month or so everywhere we can, including Facebook. Then we audition applicants and choose the ones who have potential -" we never expect Beethoven to apply, but still we can't accept someone who doesn't have the basic knowledge about music. We choose those who can play an instrument, be it a guitar, bass, Oud or whatever and also singers. In the last workshop we had about 60 or 70 applicants and ended up choosing 20 male and female students. They included maybe six or seven singers, three guitarists, two bassists, two violinists, a female drummer, Oud player, a keyboard player, a percussionist and more. Naturally, some of the students have their own original numbers, so we worked on some of them.
