Moroccan Bellydance

An exciting release from the acclaimed Moroccan artist Chalf Hassan. Great oriental belly dance music of true Moroccan colour and feel. The instrumentation is traditional (oud, bendir, darbuka, tbal, riqq, kamanja, guedra) with the addition of bass.

The Music

Morocco, situated at the only strategic crossing point between Africa and Europe, is well placed to absorb cultural inputs from the whole of North Africa. Moroccan folk music, based on ancient repertoires and often played by large orchestras, had resisted the influx of Western instruments like violins, accordions and guitars although it had assimilated influences from other Arab countries as far as Egypt.

Chalf Hassan is a young musician and singer from Morocco (Casablanca). He was born into a religious family, was steeped in Koranic culture but also became adept at a range of local percussion and stringed instruments.

His music is based on traditional folk and classical songs given a distinctively personal treatment.

He played throughout Europe with Arab, Western and African Musicians for years before crossing cultural barriers to create his Arab-Spanish fusion.

With his lute, drums and an ever changing line-up of musicians Hassan started his career playing with groups and performed for theatre companies all over Morocco. He was also a member of professional orchestras and has formed a couple of groups that were named after him.

He is expert at playing many different and complex rhythms and music. For this he was invited by H. Ramzy to join Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (ex Led Zeppelin) on their historic reunion 1995/96 World tour.

Hassan describes his repertoire as conservative with compositions covering grand themes like Love, Piety and Spirituality, though his delivery is light-hearted and dynamic.