HINDI ZAHRA. BLUES OF THE DESERT

First of all, I'd like to make a little announcement that I am starting a new "column" here in my blog ~ Music Lounge ~ where I will be sharing my favorite music and numbers I find interesting. I hope you will find here much of your interest and to your pleasure too!
And now let me introduce you my latest discovery: a Moroccan singer, composer and musician Hindi Zahra who represents alternative musical style - a pleasant fusion of blues, jazz, reggae, traditional Moroccan folk and some Mediterranean genres.  

If about my personal taste in general, I should tell that I am not a big fan of alternative music and, for some reason, not often may find appealing any fusion, no matter whether it's related to music or other forms of art and design. But Hindi Zahra's fresh, elegant blend of musical patterns and her tender voice make you gently float on air, relax and just be...

“...Beautiful Tango, a ballad rich in timeless nostalgia, a hymn to love, a sad thought with the power to pull tender heartstrings.” 

“...Beautiful Tango got serious kudos from The Wire, the reference in Britain’s “adventurous music” press, which heralded her as a worthy successor to Billie Holiday, no less.”

 

“...Oursoul {Ursul}, is a tantalisingly ambiguous word play: what looks like English is in fact a Berber word meaning “bygones”. Against an arrangement evocative of American folk, the song tells the unfulfilled dreams of a young girl destined for marriage.”

And by the way, I so much love her clothing style, don't you? :) which is exactly the way I prefer my own - abundance of adornments, multi-layered and multi-colored wears, ethnic clothes cuts and motifs... ok, just a small lyrical digression:)

And finally, the Stand Up song - lovely rhythms and interesting melody, enjoy!

Here's some interesting reading about Hindi Zahra which I have found at her official website. 

{...Hardly have her lips approached the microphone than your ear is drawn in, gently but irresistibly. Just the slightest nonchalance in the hips with a filigree of swing in the delivery, a delicately veiled voice. Meet Hindi Zahra and her original gently undulating sense of melody. With a subtle, understated guitar accompaniment, a dash of gypsy guitar between the lines, and a hint of blues but with a capital B. Time stands still. Intense, intimate, poetic vibrations, with a velvety feline timbre. At thirty, Hindi Zahra is neither a reality show wonder nor the umpteenth shooting star fizzing across the firmament of vocal jazz. Music is the story of her life, a family affair.
The story of a Berber girl born in Morocco. Her father was in the army and her mother a housewife, occasional actress and singer of village repute. Among her uncles were musicians, into the post-psychedelic Moroccan scene of the time. She grew up to the sound of divas ¾ raï and châabi, like Cheikha Rimitti, and the great Egyptian Oum Khalsoum ¾ between traditional Berber music and desert rock’n’roll, with the blues of the great Malian Ali Farka Touré and the sensual folk music of Ismaël Lo in the wings.

The production and arrangements are her own, end-to-end, and already have the patina of maturity: a pared down sophisticated lady mood. With style in her piano and ideas in her style, Hindi Zahra chisels away at her own original groove, a finely crafted soundtrack of soul-folk-jazz ballads and south Moroccan roots, on the cusp of black culture, embellished here by some bendir, there by a ganoua bass line, or lyrics in Berber on tracks like Imik Simik and Petit à petit (Little by little), a title that fits her well.
A versatile multi-instrumentalist she has quietly, away from the limelight, gone about the business of building an authenticity, that is there in her songs, “always about love” and people, “very simply”...}

I hope you liked Hindi Zahra and you may listen to the samples of all other songs from her album here An official video on Beautiful Tango here, very delightful!

{Prepared on the basis of the material from Hindi Zahra's official website and an article in UNFAIR magazine/New, Abu Dhabi based, fashion and lifestyle magazine/}