Amstel Quartet & Anass Habib: Stories of the Soul
Anass Habib vocals, Remco Jak soprano saxophone, Olivier Sliepen alto saxophone, Bas Apswoude tenor saxophone, Harry Cherrin baritone saxophone
For decades, virtually all radio stations in the Arab world began their broadcast with a work by Fairuz, “the cedar of Lebanon,” or Um Kalthoum, “the Lady of Cairo.” Like no other, these artists were able to penetrate the soul of the Arab population. They closed the gap between emotion and poetry, a cherished art form in the Middle East.
Stories of the Soul is a program full of stories and emotion, created with the Moroccan singer Anass Habib. Habib was born in Fez and has lived in the Netherlands for three years. He specialized in Lebanon and Syria in classical and old traditional Arab, Aramaic and Byzantine music. During Stories of the Soul he will be accompanied by Amstel Quartet, who combine their own broad musical background with traditional instrumental Arabic music.
In this program, in addition to the well-known songs of Oum Kalthoum and Fairuz, the rousing works of Mahmoud Sobh, the patriotic sounds of Egyptian father figure Sayid Darwish and compositions by the Rahbani Brothers – once Fairuz’s versatile musical companions. Compositions that reveal the feelings and desires of the Arab population, but above all repertoire that is still unexplored territory for a large part of the Western world.