I also bought Amr Diab's new CD, which is a return to form after last year's disappointing release. The track "Laily Nahari" is terrific. Now let's get him a new photographer and will someone tell him to cut back on the peroxide? It's not healthy!
Other tracks that caught my interest and prompted a download:
- Martin Solveig - Rockin' Music: A rockin' dance tune. Unless you've got 2 left feet, I defy anyone to sit still for this one
- Jamie Cullum - High & Dry: A live jazzy version of the Radiohead classic.
- Wendy & Lisa - Are you my baby?: I've searched high and low for this one. A slinky, funky Prince-inspired gem from 1989 by - wouldn't you know it? - Prince's former bandmates.
Not way off topic at all, since we're talking about music. Saleh and Dawud Al-Kuwaiti were indeed Jewish musicians who were very popular in their day. Their real family name was Ezra and they were members of Kuwait's tiny Jewish community, most of whom were jewellers and artists. They even had their own little synagogue, though I have no idea where it was.
ReplyDeleteI think the last remaining Kuwaiti Jews left in 1936 to Iraq and then onto Palestine, and contrary to Israeli propaganda they left voluntarily and were not driven out.
To Luca:
ReplyDeleteOf course there were Jews in Kuwait who probably left by the late forties. As for Salih and Dawud Al Kuwaiti, yes they were both Jews and they lived in Kuwait that's for sure. Were they Kuwaitis? Mmmm.. they sure didn't have official papers to prove that, but back then no one did.
Both were great violinists. They went to Iraq and joined "Hdieri Bo Aziz's band" (In one of Bo Aziz's songs there's a line that goes something like: 'Ya Saleh Kuwaiti play us some violin'). Later on they started another band for the Israeli Radio, which was around the fifties I suppose. That's all I know about the fabulous Kuwaiti brothers.
Mahmoud and Abdullatif al Kuwaiti on the other hand were not.. they were Shiite Muslims.
Oh and Iraqi Jews lived in Baghdad too (There?s a very good documentary on Iraqi Jews moving to Israel, It?s called ?Forget Baghdad?.. Sorry, I don?t recall the directors name)
To Zaydoun:
Out of curiosity, what do the few lines on the blue background on top of your page say?
And what does 897 stand for?
(Your lists are very good.. keep them coming.)
It says "Random thoughts, commentary & gossip from Kuwait"
ReplyDeleteThe 897 came with the Blogger template that I'm using. No idea what it means!
i just heard the most ridiculous ad on the radio and just HAD to share it with y'all. sorry if this is off-topic, but i'll make up for it by making my next post more pertinent. ok, so i literally went "OH MY GOD !" when i heard this (was in shock so can't quote it verbatim, but here's the gist of it):
ReplyDeletewoman in deep, slow, "sexy" voice : that was amaaaaaaaazing
man with deep slow voice : was it good for u too?
woman: oh yeah...it was even better than the last time
then cheesy ad guy comes in and says : come to salmiyah to check out what all the buzz is about....(think he said city centre). frankly, who was paying attention to him?? but wtf?!!! heheheh i guess it grabbed my attention, but was kind of bemused as to waht it was advertising. i only realised it was city centre when i got home and disconnected my ipod from my car dock w it switched to the radio and i caught the city centre bit.
g'morning everyone, as u can see i'm quite a newbie here & i can't help but notice two topics that are simply irresistable.
ReplyDeletefirst, about the history of kuwaiti jews..according to our (everlasting wise) elders (my dad, his friends & a general hodge-podge of elders) they all claim that we do have quite a few kuwaiti jews STILL living here.
you're right about their origins & the ones living here are originally zubairies (one way or another we're ALL related to the zubair/basra side of iraq). can't claim this as 100% correct info, but that's what the "elders" claim, can we dispute them? or can we?
second, about that ad on the FM 99.7, it sure is about City Center & the last time I ever heard something similar to that was a promotion to some safe sex campaign back in the states..creativity is wonderful, but i wonder if the censors were sleeping on the switch? I've seen/heard lots of weird stuff like that both on tv & the radio yet ppl have no clue in this country.
I also heard that there are kuwaiti jews still but disguised as kuwaiti christians, or pretended to convert into christianity to avoid any prejudices. It is truly sad to be pushed to hide your religion just in order to live in your country.
ReplyDelete