Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band
by Shahinda Abdalla
It’s not often that you see a military commander start his own band, let alone a jazz band back in the 60s. But Salah Ragab was no ordinary person. Born in 1935 in Cairo, Ragab followed in his family’s footsteps and enrolled in Egypt’s Military Academy and started serving in the army in 1957. He continued to serve in the army during one of Egypt’s most crucial chapters until the early 70s. According to an interview with his grandson Alaadin Kassem, at one point during this era of conflict, his commanders incorrectly determined he’d been killed in action. He found himself stranded in the desert and forced to make a menacing trek back home on foot. It was a bold undertaking with a miraculous outcome and a man who survives and endures such circumstances would certainly have been transformed into someone extraordinary. Ragab was an Egyptian drummer mesmerized by jazz, frequenting concerts and clubs playing jazz and the blues with his wife. Jazz itself at the time was experiencing a rise in popularity in Egypt which was in part due to the influx of muslim African-American musicians that came to Egypt in the 60s to study at al-Azhar. One such musician was Osama Kareem, also known as Mac X Spears, who was an African-American saxophonist that left the US because of the rapid violence and racism at the time.
Salah Ragab with Osama Kareem (Image Source)
In 1964, Kareem and Ragab started the first version of the Cairo Jazz Band but it was short-lived as Kareem left Egypt in 1967. In the late 60s, Ragab’s military and music lives found a way to merge, and in 1968 he was appointed the head of the army’s music department. He handpicked 20 soldiers to train and practice jazz in a military house in Heliopolis with the help of German musician Hatmut Geerkan who was a friend of Ragab’s and worked at the Goethe Institute at the time. From this, the Cairo Jazz Band was formed and they played their first concert at the Ewart Music Hall at the American University in Cairo in Tahrir Square in 1969. The Cairo Jazz Band set in motion a trend in Egyptian jazz that mixed American jazz tunes with Egyptian folk music and even Islamic oratory traditions. One such iconic song is ‘Ramadan in Space Time’ that was revolutionary for its time beginning with a familiar sound to many Egyptians — that of the Mesharaty (the public wake up call for the pre-dawn meal before the daily fast begins during the Holy Month of Ramadan).
Ragab’s boldness and willingness to experiment created a culturally-rich Egyptian jazz that became the beginning of a beautiful relationship between Egyptian musicians and jazz. A genre of music like jazz known for its spontaneity and improvisation might at first glance seem like an unlikely companion to military life, but thanks to Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band, we can confidently say otherwise. One of the band’s most popular collaborations is with Sun Ra — an iconic African-American jazz musician who expressed his anti-racism activism through jazz. ‘Egypt Sturt’ — a product of this collaboration — mixed Sun Ra’s jazzy keyboard tunes with zaffa melodies which are the musical marches at traditional Egyptian weddings using drums and horns to create festive and celebratory sounds. Until his death in 2008, Ragab continued to play with the Cairo Jazz Band. Considered by many the Father of Egyptian Jazz, he will continue to live on and inspire generations of musicians with his eclectic beats.