‘Oxford Maqam: Cairo Tango and Jazz’ Concert

Get ready for two of Oxford Maqam’s sell-out shows in one evening: ‘Tarab and Tango’ and ‘Cairo Nights’, 7pm 1^st June at the Greenwood Theatre, London.

Get drawn in by unique sounds inspired by 1930s Cairo as the birthplace of Arabic tango, followed by the incredible big band collaboration showcasing 1950s Egypt in the second half. Building on last year’s extremely successful premiere this performance is the only other chance to catch this unmissable event.

For fifteen years, Oxford Maqam have been trailblazers in researching and performing classical Arabic music. Their hypnotic recreations of Egyptian song, from the mid 1800s through to the early cinema era, have beguiled audiences across England, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Songlines magazine called their debut album “revolutionary.”

As the Oxford Maqam Big Band, they join forces once again with students and alumni of King’s College London and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance and Music, a stellar thirty-piece ensemble bringing a traditional line-up of trumpets, trombones and saxophones alongside a string section.

Professor Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music, worked with King’s Liberal Arts alumnus Jake Fletcher and SOAS PhD student, Daniel Woodfield, to arrange eight charts for the band. These transcriptions were based on audio records by established Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez, whose works brought together Arabic sound and other influences from around the world. This performance also celebrates the artists that surrounded Hafez at this point in his career, who through their different contributions created a uniquely cosmopolitan sound world that has since disappeared in live performance.

Don’t miss this chance to experience the diversity of Egyptian popular song, presented live by the UK’s leading interpreters of classical Arabic music.

For tickets, interviews and further enquiries please contact Mez Dubois-van Slageren at oxfordmaqam@gmail.com.