Omar Souleyman - Jazeera Nights

Sublime Frequencies is honored to present Omar Souleyman's third Western collection on disc. This retrospective features live recordings spanning 15 years of Omar's tireless repertoire, and is rife with frenzied Syrian Dabke (a regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi Choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others - an amalgamation that exemplifies the musical essence of Northeastern Syria. Culled from cassettes recorded between 1995 and 2009, this collection offers a further rare glimpse into Syrian street-level Dabke folk-pop – a phenomena seldom heard in the West, not previously deemed serious enough for export by the Syrians and rarely, if ever, included on the import agenda of worldwide academic musical committees. Over the years, Souleyman's popularity has risen steadily and the group tirelessly performs concerts throughout Syria and has accepted invitations to perform abroad in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. In 2006, Sublime Frequencies partnered with Omar to release "Highway to Hassake", the first compilation of his works to be issued in the West. The success of this release and the video for the song "Leh Jani" helped see Souleyman and his group invited for their first Western tour in 2009 alongside label-mates Group Doueh from the Western Sahara. This successful tour quickly elevated Souleyman to the status of an international legend – and deservedly so. This release coincides with the beginning of Omar’s 2010 international tour in May which will take him to the UK, the European mainland, and hopefully the US and Canada. CD features a full color 8-page booklet with great photos, a general overview of the lyrics translated into English and liner notes by compiler Mark Gergis.

this stuff is pretty nuts. anyone else like this guy?

Omar is the mana!!!

Only listened to Omar Souleyman - Highway To Hassake, liked it a lot.

there's this 10 minute jam on this new album that i heard on wfmu yesterday. was very impressed. i would like to hear the other ones.

also just listened to Group Doueh on sublime frequencies, also really good.

Leh Jani owns all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgRUHIeaKOk

++++ he'll be doing select dates in the USA !!!

June 19, 2010

Cleveland, OH

The Cleveland Museum of Art

June 20, 2010

Dearborn, MI

Arab International Festival (Warren Avenue) -OUTSIDE-

June 24, 2010

Chicago IL

Grant Park, Chicago Summer Dance

June 25, 2010

Ottawa, Canada

TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival

June 26, 2010

New York, NY

City Parks Foundation

(Central Park Summer Stage City Parks Concerts)

June 27, 2010

Brooklyn, NY

Issue Project Room

June 28, 2010

Montreal, Canada

Montreal Jazz Festival

June 29, 2919

Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Really dig the drum-programming on Omar's tracks, Rizan Sa'id seems to be the one in charge of all the programming and sampling.