Sabah Fakhri needs no introduction. He cast a shadow over all who sang Al Qudood Al Halabiya (Aleppo-style songs) beside him, and dominated the realms of tarab, mawal, and muwashah in the Levant. His formidable voice enabled him to undertake difficult and demanding works, and his personality – oscillating between solemnity and joy – left its mark on everything he sang, making it hard to hear these songs performed by anyone else. His influence remains uncontested since his departure, and one cannot listen to the radio in Syria or ride a taxi in Tunisia without encountering his works. Sabah Fakhri – Live at Palais des Congrès - Paris This album presents one of Sabah Fakhri's most famous and widely circulated concerts, held at the Palais des Congrès (Conference Palace) in Paris during the 1970s. On the first side of the album, we find Sabah's renowned version of "Ya Bahjet Al Rooh" (The Happiness of the Soul), a favorite tarab song among the audience. He continues to revisit the phrase "Hat Kas Al Raah Wasqini Al Aqdah" (Bring a cup of wine and quench me with goblets), each time with varying tones of endearment, pleading, and sometimes flirtation. He concludes the central part of the song with a passage that incites audience frenzy on the phrase "Ya Ein Ya Leil" (O Eye, O Night), before gradually announcing the song's approach to its end with "Wajhak Al Wadah Malosh Mithal" (Your Radiant Face is Unparalleled). On the second side, Sabah Fakhri performs a set of his most famous songs: Al Aouzbiah (Singlehood), Wel Nabi Yma, Malek Ya Helwa, Sayed Al Assari, Ya Tayer Tere, and ending with Ya Mal Al Sham. This sequence has its own dynamic, as Sabah transitions from expressing longing for the beloved to a longing for the homeland, all set to light and joyful rhythms. The side also includes Sabah's most famous rendition of the poem Habibi Ala Donya, by the Mamluk poet Baha Al Din Zuhair, where Sabah Fakhri lingers on the verse “I humbled myself until the heart of my envier softened | And my critic in love returned as an intercessor,” and probes the intense emotions packed between its words. Sabah Fakhri – Mawal Sharkawi (Eastern Mawawil) In this album, Sabah Fakhri sails on the vessel of Eastern mawawil (plural of mawal, a type of vocal improvisation), with the accompaniment of traditional instruments like the rebab and the reed pipe that evoke the voice of the countryside and the badiah. The album is interspersed with a collection of Sab'awiyya mawawil (seven-line mawawil) that are famous in the heritage of Aleppo. The Sab'awi mawal consists of seven hemistichs: the first, second, third, and seventh lines share one rhyme, while the fourth, fifth, and sixth share another, interweaving classical Arabic with spoken dialects. On the first side of the album, we hear Sabah Fakhri's performance of the Mamluk-era poem Ja'at Mu'athibati (My Tormentor Came) by Lisan Al Din Ibn Al Khatib. He performs it with a vast, masterful breath and a yearning, anguished voice, doing justice to the emotionally charged words of the poem. As is his habit when performing poems, Sabah chooses a few verses which he continues to revisit and repeat, searching for a different angle each time. Despite the secular nature of the poem, Sabah's performance bears traces of his career in religious chanting, and even traces of his work as a mosque muezzin. Sabah Fakhri – The Masterpieces This album, recorded with rough sound quality at a Sabah Fakhri concert in Aleppo, presents a collection of his classics. The first side opens with Khamret Al Hob (Drunk In Love), a favorite among Sabah Fakhri’s Aleppine audience. This is followed by a set of his well-known songs, starting with Ala Al Yamma, then Ala Al Akeek and Be Kalbi Hasra Wnzara, a group of light, joyful songs that encourage the waists to dance. The second side of the album starts with a rare recording of Kol Lel Maleeha (Tell the Pretty One), beginning with a minimal prelude instead of the qanun introduction that usually precedes the song in Sabah Fakhri's performances. The song is cut midway to make room for an introduction of an Islamic call to prayer and a supplication. The song is followed, as usual, by Ebtali Jawab (Send Me a Letter), creating a clear shift in both momentum and mood between a pious religious song and an emotive, uninhibited one.