Wednesday night I had the pleasure of seeing the Mohammed bin Faris band at the Cultural Hall, who are a band of young Bahrainis who specialise in traditional Bahraini musical arts such as “Sout”, “Basteh”, “Khammari” and also more contemporary Arabic music.
It is a relatively large band with twenty members who range from violin players, singers, “Oud” players, A flute player, and ‘Qanoon‘ player and percussionists (‘Tara‘ , ‘Mirwas‘ and ‘Donbok‘)
I enjoyed it thoroughly and was mildly surprised by the professionalism the musician displayed during the show and just listening to the ‘Sout’ just gave me goosebumps not excluding the many times I clapped with the band (I just couldn’t resist).
When reading the brochure/sheet thingie with the song list and introduction of the band, I saw that this band have been to India to play a number of shows, where back in the Golden days of Bahraini music most artists such as Mohammed bin Faris, Yousef Foni, Dhahi bin Owlaid and many others would travel to India to record and cut their records.. Now that’s what I call keeping it real!
The band also have some collaborations with other Bahraini artists like Ali Al-Sharqawi and Khalid Al-Shaikh, playing in the latter’s Spring of Culture concert.
Long have I longed for some musicians who can truly bring our traditional music to life, and alhamdulillah we’ve found some!
Keep up the good work and inshalla we’ll see more of you in the future..
Oh and here are some pics from the show
