A Review Of

Sirocco Volume 1

by Sirocco

Summary

This music gives me "that tribal feeling." (Referring to the Bal Anat and FatChance flavors of tribal.) It puts me in the mood to wear coins and natural fibers instead of beads and sequins. The band Sirocco, based in California, consists of two musicians, Armando and Sulyman. They play traditional instruments from the Middle East and North Africa. The original release of this music entered the market in 1979. Back then, Sirocco was playing for the early pioneers of the California dance style now known worldwide as "tribal", the era of Bal Anat, which was years before FatChanceBellyDance appeared on the scene. This music belongs in the collection of every dancer who appreciates American Tribal Style and Bal Anat flavored tribal.

Fact Sheet

Description

The band Sirocco is a duet consisting of Sulyman el-Coyote, who plays the melody instruments, and Armando Mafufo, who plays the percussion. Both versatile musicans play a number of traditional instruments, and vary the instruments they use on the different songs to create a package in which each song has a unique sound. Because of their use of traditional instruments, the album contains a strong folkloric flavor.

In the "Country Dance" medley, 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 do best with music no longer than about 3 minutes.

Songs Included

Is It Right for You?

You Will Probably Enjoy This Music 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 American 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 well for that.

This Music Probably Isn't Right for You If...

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

What I Liked, What I Didn't

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 ideal 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 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:

• Two of the tracks on the CD are medleys of multiple songs. Each medley uses one enormous 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 using the music for a performance.
• 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.

Conclusion

The collection of music on this album best suits the American Classic style of belly dance, which uses traditional songs from a variety of ethnic origins. The traditional instruments used to play this music would work well with Renaissance Faires or other environments where a folkloric flavor of music is desired.

Disclosures

I first discovered the music of Sirocco around 1985 when one of my belly dance teachers used their music in class and dragged me to watch her perform with them as her live musicians. Since then, I have danced to them live myself on various occasions, bought many of their recordings, and met them at dance events. I wouldn't presume to call them friends because I don't know them well enough for that, but I admire them as musicians and I strongly appreciate the fact that they treat dancers as partners rather than as annoying creatures.

To Buy It

Artist: Sirocco Album Title: Sirocco Volume 1 Sirocco P.O.Box 24 Capitola, CA 95010 U.S.A. Telephone: (+1) (831) 475-3591 Fax: (+1) (831) 475-3591 Email: hanya@unclemafufo.com Web Site: sirocco-music.com