South Philly Review

With a growing Lebanese population around 10th and Federal streets, and pockets of Arabs in the North and Northeast, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is using the universal language of music to bridge the potential gap between younger generations and the understanding of countries such as Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The communications lesson hit a high note May 19 at Girard Academic Music Program, 22nd and Ritner streets, with three jazz bands, a choir, as well as Al-Bustan's percussion and music ensembles, performing classical and jazz fusion Arabic music for an audience that may have been hearing the cultural strains for the very first time.

Playing the oud, which is similar to the lute, and the violin since he was a boy in Israel, renowned Palestinian-American composer Simon Shaheen tours the world solo and with two bands, in addition to promoting Arab music. One of his most invested interests is mentoring students through the nonprofit Al-Bustan, which is based in Southwest.

"Simon was trying to bring in elements of Arabic classical music and jazz," said Hanna Khoury, director and violinist of the Al-Bustan ensemble of adults and youths of strings, percussion and singers including the nonprofit's founder Hazami Sayed. "We're really presenting classical Arabic in its most traditional form."

Arab classical music differs from Western classical in that harmonies are dominant in the latter while each instrument plays the same melodic line in the former, Khoury, who recorded the violin solo for the pop song "Beautiful Liar" by Beyonce and Shakira, said.

"You will have this organized chaos that is happening," the Syria native who resides in Center City added.

Arabic music uses a different tuning system and utilizes quarter tones, or notes in between traditional ones, but not all countries recognize the same quarter tones. A quarter tone in Turkey is usually higher than one in Egypt, Khoury said.

During a GAMP master class earlier this year, Shaheen explained the concept to the students by giving them a visual via a piano: "Like when you have neighboring keys, white and black. OK, so imagine that between them there is another red key that when you press it, it gives you the midway sound between the white and the black."

Many of the performers last week -- Penn Charter School Jazz Band, Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and the GAMP High School Jazz Band -- were new to this style of music. Along with the Al-Bustan Music Ensemble, the Al-Bustan Percussion Ensemble, led by Hafez El Ali Kotain, was formed by the nonprofit and had few rehearsals to learn the Arab-inspired numbers. Made up of six boys and teens from area schools, including GAMP freshman Shakoor Sanders, 16, and Sayed's sons, 13-year-old Mazin and 10-year-old Jad Blaik playing dufs, or Moroccan drums, the percussionists performed arrangements where they mimicked their director and one the boys wrote themselves.

To end the program, GAMP took on "Blue Flame," a Shaheen composition the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble also performed that night.

"What we really appreciated about Mr. Shaheen was that he said, 'the music is supposed to be molded and played for your expression' and he appreciated the fact that we would take the arrangements that we heard and do a different instrumentation for a big band or other ensembles utilizing instruments that weren't necessarily always traditionally used in the music," GAMP High School Jazz Band Director Vincent Rutlandt said to the audience.

GAMP's "Blue Flame" featured Andrew Lawson on soprano saxophone. The junior learned from the composer during January master classes and had fun incorporating Arab and Hindu scales into his solo.

"[Shaheen] told me personally that I could make it [as a musician] just by listening," the resident of 23rd and Wolf streets said.