CAIRO - Most people here are not familiar with Gospel music. Let me show off… I am familiar with it! It is mainly the kind of music you see in American movies with big African-American choirs singing very soulful kind of singing. Although that genre is not popular here, I've always loved it. When I was invited to attend a concert I thought it was going to be a Gospel one. When I went to Qobet El-Ghoury, where the concert was, people were literally breaking down the doors to enter the court of this ancient house with old stone walls with Arabesque windows surrounding us. When I got in I realised it was the opening ceremony of the 4th round of a festival called “Sama'a” (Listening). The performance included artists from Algeria, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sudan, the United States, Turkey and Syria, which apologized this year due to the current circumstances. It started one minute to 10pm, with a recital from the Holy Qur'an and then an amazing mix between the call for prayers, Islamic chants and the Gospel classic ‘Amazing Grace'. This beautiful output left us speechless! Tenor John Gerner of ‘Voices of Inspiration' said: “We were brought over by a company called ‘Share the Mic', which is basically a cultural exchange programme, and through that we had the chance to be with a Sufi group. This has been one of the best experiences of my life. I don't think the music we were exposed to here was that different – our art forms may have different names but we have the same message. Everyone here sings with such passion and that's what Gospel is about so it's similar to Islamic music. We had only two rehearsals with the other artists, but the maestro had a vision and he put it all together. We chose ‘Amazing Grace' and ‘Oh Happy Day'. The latter is very famous song and it's about being happy with your life. We get encouragement from ourselves, so we believe that we should encourage others as well. We didn't know what to expect tonight but we knew that if people felt what we feel it's going to work.” Danielle Lewis “We appreciate music and we all have degrees in music, in singing in particular. We also play the piano, which is an instrument! This participation has enhanced us and will help us grow in our own Gospel experience. We are already thinking about adding a Sufi song to our repertoire. We are considering that as a sign of appreciation and it will not be a full song… maybe only four lines. We have learned from being here. We are all staying at the same hotel so we talk and also eat together, laugh and share musical ideas. Tonight we will be with the Pakistanis and they will show us scales that we can use. The reason we are here is to bridge the gap between America and the Middle Eastern countries. It was one of the best experiences we have had. We felt we needed to do our best. After what we've seen tonight we will not wait till next year… We will come to Egypt next week. Embracing the culture, learning more about Egyptians and this part of the world has helped us become better – more open-minded and more loving. We love you Egypt.” Egypt loves you back of course. Alana Alexander said: “We do more than Gospel. We also sing classical and jazz but we are also huge fans of R&B, country, pop and other genres. At first during the rehearsals I felt maybe we were out of place, because there were lots of similarities in the music performed by other artists in the rhythm and scales, but tonight after having the whole show, I'm just honoured to be a part of this festival. It's such a great learning experience. We have never been exposed in America to Middle Eastern music, so tonight was an overwhelming experience. We sat on stage and we were holding back to the tears. Wait… I'm gonna cry. [She actually cried]. Maestro Entesar arranged who would sing where and where it would fit into the programme. I didn't expect that kind of reaction because most Egyptians are not familiar with Gospel so this response just blew us all away and we were astounded. I'm grateful to Share the Mic, the American Embassy and the Egyptian Minister of Culture. I'm very grateful to the people of Egypt for their warm reception everywhere we go. Even other participating artists were so warm.” She cried again! An amazing lady. Baritone Jeremy Williams couldn't make it to Egypt with the other the singers, but Alana asked a very interesting musician to have a word with me. He is John McDowell the pianist, percussionist and composer, who played the African drums. He said: “I played jazz in college and I know that Gospel music goes back to Africa. I also went to Africa to see where swing and blues come from. Did they originate in Africa or America? I think both… they started in Africa and evolved in America. I love world music in general and, when I was 21, I took a job with a Gospel group and I was the only white member. I wrote the music to the Academy Award-wining movie “Born into Brothels ‘and the score won a lot of awards. I have also worked with legendary artists like Santana and Sting.” John, can I be your best friend? I have to say that Egyptian artists ruled. I loved the Algerians as well and the Indonesians were out of this world, with their immaculate a cappella performances. Send me your tissues to: [email protected]
