ALI HASSAN KUBAN

From Nubia to Cairo

From a self-taught musician exploring his Nubian people’s musical roots to a professional, successfully leading his various bands into new, vibrant, international pop territory – Ali Hassan Kuban became an international star when his music finally went global in the 1980s.

When precisely Ali Hassan Kuban’s legendary recordings, released internationally by Piranha in 1988, were made, nobody knows any more. What we do know, recordings had taken place at Delta Sound S.A. in Cairo – with the orchestra’s entire line-up circled around the only working microphone at hand. The tracks had been travelling in the Arab world on two audio-cassettes afterwards and accompanied his rise from a local superhero to a musical innovator of new, vibrant, international Pop.

Ancient Nubian melodies played on a background of pulsating Western beats and sounds that draw from American jazz and international pop – Ali Hassan Kuban served as one of the founding fathers of the musical breed which crushed the gates between the

Global underground and Western pop: the old and the new! The Orient and the Occident! “From Nubia to Cairo” is the first milestone in urban Nubian Pop. The record is available in glorious audiophile format - remastered from analogue tapes with listening standards updated to contemporary levels. The first batch of Ali’s long-legendary Nubian originals, seductively praising in touching lyrics his native Nubia and Egypt, their people, in particular, their women, and life. Life in general.

- A collection of Ali Hassan Kuban’s early Cairo hits
- Signature-album in Ali’s carrier, these are the original recordings that broke him internationally
- The first milestone in urban Nubian Pop music
- A collector’s item, has been out of print for many years
- High quality reissue and remaster on 180g vinyl and CD


T R A C K L I S T A

01 Sukkar, Sukkar, Sukkar
02 Om Schar Asmar Medaffar
03 Hanwil Tanza
04 Yah Nasma Yah Halina
05 Mabruk
06 Amira
07 Nouba