CD review: Hossam Ramzy and Ossama El Hendy - Ruby

Published on Sunday 20 September 2009 19:30

HOSSAM RAMZY AND OSSAMA EL HENDY – RUBY ** EUCD, £10.76

THE subtitle of this CD by the prolific Hossam Ramzy and his composer Ossama El Hendy is "classical Egyptian bellydance", which sets up great expectations because "bellydance" covers an infinitely more significant terrain than mere sex shows for tourists. The word itself comes from the Arabic baladi, meaning "country dance", which an American impresario in the 19th century purloined as a better-sounding name than the then-current "stomach dance" – which itself derived from the "danse du ventre" which French colonialists found in the Middle East.

From the outset it had two parallel functions. One was indeed to delight tourists like the French novelist Gustave Flaubert, whose description of a dancer he encountered dominated his Oriental literary impressions; Hollywood later took up that torch. But the other function was as a serious means of self-expression – even self-fulfilment – for women. And this has now spread to women's groups world-wide, with Berliners and Los Angelinos and Glaswegians luxuriating in what this sensuous dance – embodying the skilful control of every muscle in the body – can do for their spiritual health. And while this new CD offers an efficient range of rhythms – the musicians want us to let them know which work best – it's terribly limited as music, with the same orchestral sound and mood for almost every track.

Far better to acquire The Rough Guide to Bellydance (RGNET 1085), which provides a fascinating conspectus of instrumental styles from all over the Middle East, and is impregnated with that wonderful whiff of herbs and tobacco that you find in every souk.