Feet On The Street Tours is offering a special package with transportation from Southfield for this concerts. Visit www.FeetOnTheStreetTours.com or call (248) 353-8687.
By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com,
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Great traditional Middle Eastern music can be heard right here in metro Detroit, where one of the largest and most diverse Arabic populations in North America resides. It should be no surprise that Lebanese-born Nadim Dlaikan, leader of the ensemble, chose to settle in this fertile community to pursue his traditional flute-playing and flute-making endeavors.
As a child Dlaikan made and taught himself to play the nye (reed flute). His increasing musical skill led him to study at the Lebanese Conservatory in Beirut, and later to tour and perform with Lebanon’s best-known folk troupe.
His travels eventually led him to settle in the Detroit area, where he has earned the respect of the local community and built a national reputation. Known as the only nye maker in the U.S., Dlaikan creates them from bamboo grown in his backyard in Southgate. A treasured musical and cultural resource, he received the Michigan Heritage Award from the Michigan State University Museum in 1994. In 2002, he was honored with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. Dlaikan also plays the mijwiz (a double-reed instrument which sounds like a bagpipe) and other Arabic wind instruments.
Oud player Abdul Karim Bader, of Farmington Hills, is a 2006 Michigan Heritage Award recipient. He has also received the Golden ‘Ud award from the Arab American Arts Institute. Bader learned to play the oud, a guitar-like instrument, at age seven from his father and grandfather in Lebanon. The oud is the “key instrument to achieve the sound of true Arabic melodies,” says Dlaikan.
Rhythms are at the heart of Arabic folk music, and tabla player Mustapha Atat’s masterful hands ably shape the sound of this ensemble. Atat has performed in concerts, festivals, parties and weddings in the U.S. and across the Arab world.
Together these musicians perform the traditional music of their homeland with love, enthusiasm and incredible musicianship. This wondrous music has been performed by masters Dlaikan and Bader at the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and will lift our hearts right here in Palmer Woods.
