Revivalists’s African Jazz Issue: Salah Ragab’s Egyptian Jazz

Revivalists’s African Jazz Issue: Salah Ragab’s Egyptian Jazz

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The continuation of Revivalist’s African Jazz Issue features legendary musician and pioneer of Egyptian's jazz genre, Salah Ragab. The multi-instrumentalist is responsible for introducing jazz music to the Afro-Arab world, and also acted as a political dignitary, making the music part of the national agenda. Ragab is known for embracing the crux of true jazz - improvisation - and introducing it to his cadre of Egyptian musicians.  He is perhaps best known outside of Egypt for two collaborative concerts he performed with the great Sun Ra (one of the masters of improv), in 1971 and 1983. Get a taste for his sounds with the video above, and check out the full Revivalist feature HERE.

 

 

​Photo illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi, Okayplayer.
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