Search - Hossam Ramzy :: Source of Fire

A great personal favorite

P. Lozar | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/25/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a student of belly dance and a jazz fan, and I found this album an immense pleasure on both counts. While remaining true to the Middle Eastern rhythms and melodic patterns that underlie his own musical sensibility, Ramzy has extended the boundaries to include untraditional instrumentation and tunes. He's augmented his own outstanding percussion skills with a group of solid and imaginative musicians, and the results are nothing short of splendid. It's a good listening CD, but also great for dance students: the third track will help you learn to identify the most popular rhythmic patterns (it shifts from chiftitelli to beladi to masmoodi, with detours along the way), while the second-to-last starts out as a soulful taksim and segues into an earthy drum solo.
My personal rating scale for belly dance music recordings runs somewhat like this: If I'm tired and put it on the stereo, I (1) fall asleep, (2) stay awake, (3) dance to a few tunes, (4) dance to most tunes, (5) come to at the end and realize that I've been dancing for a whole hour. On that scale, I give this album a 7: if they play it at my funeral, I'll rise from the dead for one more dance (heh!)."

A must have for anyone studying middle eastern dance.

P. Lozar | 07/31/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In this album, Hossam combines traditional middle eastern instruments with more funk modern sounds and creates a jazzy modern take on some new and some traditional-sounding melodies and styles. Source of fire is a passionate album and aptly named. Recognizable drum and percussion beats underwrite splendid, melodic orchestration. A blend of the old and new in near perfect measures. The percussion will stir your heart, the melodies will stir your mind. Several pieces begin with dramatic slow melodies perfect for Taqusim or veil work before transitioning smoothly to great drum-accented tempos. I really enjoyed the second tract's jazzy and upbeat sound. The underlying deep and resonating percussion is perfect for shimmy practice and the leading melody trumpet floats sonorously over the percussion with playful accents from other instruments. This song can be playful and sultry. Tracts 6 and 7 are also personal favorites. Tract 6 starts quickly with an air of mystery with s! harp drum accents. Tract 7 starts with a wistful accordion sound building tension up and down the register before the percussion joins in with a deeper melody. Very emotional piece. One of the nice things of this album is that the range of songs cover a lot of emotional territory, and even within songs, an entire story is told in the emotional tone of the music. The songs cover a wide emotional tone range, from somber, to joyous and ethereal. There are 8 songs on this CD. Total play time is 54.53 minutes. Track averages vary in length some lasting longer than 7 minutes. Whether you are hosting a party and need good new age genre conversation music in the background, or if you are a fan of middle eastern-spawned music, or a middle eastern dancer, this album will suit your needs."

Still good for me after all this time!

SERENE | Singapore | 11/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is still the best CD for the apprentice bellydancer to start developing an individual sense of Taqsim / Improvisation. It is slow enough to allow one to try to translate the music into fluid dance movement, from sinuous slow undulations, hip figure of eights with accompanying arm positions & movements , not to mention the marathon-shimmying practice you can get out of the Qanoon number ..... just try to make your Shimmy speak like that Qanoon, habibi !"