Aziz Sadek Hadid

Sahra Ala Al Oud (An Evening on the Oud)

• Attaba

• Attaba

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Credits

Music Distribution: Mazen Al-Douri Oud: Sami Ghanem Recording: Bashar Obeid Sound and Image: Homs-Karm Al-Zaytoun

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This cassette offers us a striking hour of ataaba music played on the oud by the skilled singer and instrumentalist Aziz Sadeq Hadid. It became customary during his live appearances, that as soon as Aziz Sadeq Hadid grasped the bow of his rababa or the pick of his oud, dozens of men in the audience would reach for their weapons and begin firing into the air upon hearing the first verse of ataaba. The crowd would plead, "No bullets, guys," so they could "hear the sound of a needle drop." Hadid’s musical career began in the early 1960s. A native of the village of Barri in the Salamiyah countryside, he inherited his craft from his father, Sadeq Hadid. His voice and oud playing soon extended beyond the local area, earning him a wide reputation across multiple regions of Syria. In the Tel Menin area, for instance, weddings and festivities were rarely held without his participation. Generations of families from Salamiyah, its countryside, and the Syrian Badia have listened to him — and they still do — as he has come to represent a significant part of Salamiyah’s heritage.