Fathy Salama (Arabic فتحي سلامة; born 13 February 1951, in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

) is a Grammy Award-winning

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

musician, who usually appears with his ensemble Sharkiat (شرقيات, "Easterners"). Salama grew up listening to the radio, which played artists who placed a deep influence upon him. His childhood influences were musicians

Umm Kulthum Umm Kulthum (; 31 December 1898 – 3 February 1975) was an Egyptians, Egyptian singer and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She was given the honorific title (). Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Umm Kul ...

Mohammed Abdel Wahab Mohamed Abdel Wahab (), also transliterated ''Mehammad Abdelwehab'', (March 13, 1902 – May 4, 1991), was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He is best known for his Romantic and Egyptian patriotic songs. He ...

and Farid El Atrache. These artists influenced him so much that he decided to get involved with music; he then started to create his own versatile style of music, from playing the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

from the age of six and followed by gigging in Cairo clubs from the age of thirteen. Soon the child of

Shobra Shubra (, ; also written Shoubra or Shobra) is a district of Cairo, Egypt and it is one of eight districts that make up the Northern Area. Administratively it used to cover the entire area of the three districts of Shubra, Rod El Farag, and El ...

, the ' Compton of Cairo', made visits to Europe and to New York City to learn

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

with such artists as

Barry Harris Barry Doyle Harris (December 15, 1929 – December 8, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style. Influenced by Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Harris in turn influenc ...

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

Roman Bunka Roman Bunka (2 December 1951 – 12 June 2022) was a German guitarist, oud player and composer, active in world music and jazz fusion bands. He lived most of his life in Munich, Bavaria, where he was involved in various musical crossover proj ...

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, and Pat Patrick. He progressed to making plenty of hits in Cairo during the 1980s. He has been touring the world, and he has won two prizes for his film soundtracks for ''Fallen Angels Paradises'' and ''Signs of April''. It is with Sharkiat (his own group) that Fathy is making his dreams come true of merging modern and traditional music together. Fathy has collaborated in electronic music with Kouchari or his meeting with Alix Roy, and in sacred music on ''Egypt'', the

Youssou N'Dour Youssou N'Dour (, ; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' described him as, "perhaps the m ...

album (Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album and BBC Award). Fathy held a lot of workshops to help amateurs with his experience, which produced -workshops- artists such as Dina El Wedidi and others.

Discography

* ''Ibn Battuta'' 1994 Schneeball with

Embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...

* ''Color Me Cairo'' 1995

Enja Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971. The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Jap ...

with

* ''Sultany'' 2006 (Incognito Rec.)

Performance

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, USA, 2014: Fathy Salama performed with Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble as part of Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture concert series.

References

External links

afropop.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salama, Fathy 1969 births Egyptian conductors (music) Egyptian musicians Grammy Award winners Living people 21st-century conductors (music)