Hossam Ramzy”Source of Fire” ARC MusicThe last...
Hossam Ramzy
“Source of Fire”
ARC Music
The last place you’d expect to see a practitioner of traditional Egyptian dance music is on stage at the Forum in front of 18,000 roaring rock fans. But that’s exactly where percussionist Hossam Ramzy will be Tuesday and Wednesday, when he appears as part of the Jimmy Page-Robert Plant touring group.
Maybe Ramzy will benefit from the exposure the way Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour did traveling with Peter Gabriel or South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo did from their collaborations with Paul Simon. As big a stretch as it might seem to imagine hordes of graying Led Zep fans rushing out to buy this album, there is nonetheless a musical logic to Plant and Page’s affinity for Ramzy’s music. Like them, Ramzy is more interested in building moods than telling stories.
The eight instrumentals here employ a variety of textures, which is the smartest way to hook Western ears unfamiliar with the subtle distinctions between one number and the next. There’s an ample range of instrumental combinations, tempos and tonal colors to prevent any feeling of sameness from creeping in. The viscerally twangy aud (Egyptian lute) and quanoon (dulcimer) lead the way in several tunes, while two types of bamboo flutes soothe in others. Violin, accordion, trumpet and electronic keyboards fill out the songs with progressions more familiar to pop fans.
Ramzy is scheduled to have a featured solo spot in the middle of the Page-Plant shows. But will rock fans flick their Bics for an encore?
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