Sirocco Volume 1
Recorded By
Sirocco

What I Liked:

• The sound quality is excellent. Most recordings created more than 10-15 years ago used older studio equipment, and sound fuzzy. However, the CD edition of Sirocco has clear sound quality, thanks to being digitially re-mastered.
• The music is wonderful for American tribal style, which isn't surprising since Sirocco was one of the bands who used to play for the early tribal-style pioneers in California long before the fad spread to the rest of the U.S. and around the world.
• The distinctive folkloric musical styling of Sirocco provides an enjoyable change of piece from the 20th-century Egyptian music that so many belly dancers use.
• The music has a certain playful spirit, which makes it sound like the musicians are truly having fun with what they're doing.
• Both musicians employ a variety of instruments across the various songs. This results in a collection of music in which each song has a distinctive sound but still everything can be used comfortably together in the same performance without clashing.

What I Didn't Like:

• On the CD edition, two of the tracks are medleys of multiple songs. Each medley uses one great big 15-minute track. I wish Sirocco would have inserted track markers at the beginning of each individual song. It would have made it much easier to pick and choose individual songs from within the medleys when making performance tapes.
• I wish the individual songs would have been kept within 3 to 3 1/2 minutes in length. The long play time for the songs limits the ways I can use them. For example, they're too long to use for creating a beginner-level choreography for teaching my students.

The opening medley, Country Dance, is a full-length routine that is almost 17 minutes long. Its components include:

• A medium-speed song 3:55 in length played on mizmar that works well as an entrance. It concludes with a definite ending, and therefore could be used separately outside of the medley. Listening to it, I imagine myself either playing finger cymbals or twirling a cane. I asked the musicians where the music came from, and was told it was an improvisation based on a song on a North African record called Le Fluit Oriental.
• Insaba. A slow, dramatic song played on arghool that gradually speeds up until it reaches medium speed for the ending. Length is 4:37. The song conveys a sense of power that would be very effective for either sword balancing or slow undulations building into fast dancing. It concludes with a clean ending, and therefore could be used separately outside of the medley.
• A ney solo, 3:29 in length. This felt like good floor work or standing undulations music. Its ending transitions smoothly into the drum solo that follows, so it would make sense to use the two together.
• A drum solo, 37 seconds in length. I always enjoy Armando's percussion solos, and this one is no exception. It comes to a clean ending.
• A closing medium-speed song 4:18 in length played on mizmar. This too makes me want to use either finger cymbals or a cane.

The second selection, Simple Solo, features drumming by Armando. It's an exciting drum solo 1:51 in length.

The third selection, Mastom Mastom, is actually another full-length routine. Its components include:

• Mastom Mastom, a medium-speed Persian song with male vocals 5:13 in length. It concludes with a definite ending, and therefore could be used separately outside the medley. In the center, there are about 2 minutes of free-form improvisation.
• Slow kanoun improvisation, 2:21 in length. It concludes with a clean ending, and therefore could be used separately outside the medley. Entirely instrumental.
• Drum solo 1 minute in length. It has a clean ending, and therefore could be used separately outside the medley.
• Uskudara, a medium-speed Turkish folk song with male vocals 7:07 in length. In the center is about 4:20 of improvisation.

The fourth and final selection, Moroccan Roll, begins with about 4 minutes of instrumental improvisation to a Moroccan 6/8 rhythm. Then it smoothly transitions into an instrumental rendition of the Moroccan song Mach Mach. The length of the total cut is 5:22.

You will probably like this collection if:

• You prefer the sound of a small band playing traditional instruments over the sound of a large 40-piece orchestra with synthesizers.
• You like the folkloric sound of heavy drums and mizmars.
• You have a passion for tribal-style belly dance.
• You enjoy jamming to musical improvisation.
• You're looking for good "get up and dance just for the fun of it" music to play for open floor at festivals or parties where dancers congregate--the long length of the cuts and the improvised sections work really great for that.

You probably won't care for this music if:

• You love pop music played on electronic instruments.
• Your primary passion is for 20th-century Egyptian music played by a 40-piece orchestra.
• You prefer to avoid recordings with extensive musical improvisation inserted into the center of the songs.

In the Country Dance cut, both the opening and closing songs have strong, predictable drum beats and easy-to-follow melody lines, which would make them comfortable music for beginners to practice with at home or learn with in class. However, I wouldn't encourage beginners to use this music for performing unless they cut it, because both songs are long (3:55 and 4:18, respectively), and beginners usually can't come up with enough variety to manage a song longer than about 3 minutes.

Song Title

Length

Nationality

RealAudio Clip?

Translation?

Comments

Country Dance

• Medium-speed song
• Slow, dramatic song that gradually speeds up
• Ney Solo
• Drum Solo
• Fast song

Mastom Mastom

• Mastom Mastom
• Kanun Solo
• Drum Solo
• Uskudara

Moroccan Roll

• Improvisation
• Mach Mach

Cntact Sirocco as follows:

Sirocco
P.O.Box 24
Capitola, CA 95010
United States

Phone: (+1) (831) 475-3591
Fax: (+1) (831) 475-3591
Web Site: http://www.sirocco-music.com/
E-Mail: mafufo@sirocco-music.com

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