Lebanon has a strange effect on the unwary. Beirut in particular. The nature of this war-torn country is that it’ll seduce you without you noticing, and before you know it you’ve already lost your heart and given yourself – willingly – to her charms. The Lebanese people have to be the most hospitable and warm people in the world, which may seem like a paradox to those whose only glimpse of Lebanon is through their TV screens and newspapers, all depicting an often colored version of little else but conflict, sectarian violence, civil war and more civil war. But that’s religion and politics, often having little to nothing to do with the regular people. Get past that and you meet a people who – regardless of sect, view or belief – will stop at absolutely nothing to go out of their way to make you feel at home. The Lebanese love their country, and want to make sure you do too.
I know I do. I lived in many countries with my family throughout my childhood, moving back and forth from place to place between Finland, the Middle East and East Africa because of my father’s work – sometimes I might argue a tad more than the necessary dose. In many places, I lived for longer periods, but the year we spent in Beirut in ’95-’96 did a number on me. I’ve wanted to come back ever since. Throw in a fascination with Arabic culture and especially Arabic music, a couple of years trying to learn to play the oud (an 11-string fretless Arabic lute), a stroke of luck finding the right people from the Beirut music scene to study with, and I was more than thrilled to finally board that plane on June 29th after 12 years away.
As luck would have it, a shot-in-the-dark message to the right person through MySpace put it all together. I’d been trying to contact Lebanese music schools and conservatoires asking where I could get private instruction on the oud and in Arabic music, but never got a reply. Browsing through MySpace looking for Lebanese musicians – I even messaged oud master Rabih Abou Khalil – I came across a guy called Jean Madani, a Beiruti bass player. Never heard of him before, had nothing on his background, nothing. Sent him a message introducing myself, who I am, what I’ve been doing, and would he know any oud players I could possibly study with. It turned out Jean was one of the busiest players on the Lebanese music scene, and a regular character in bands and projects with the very best Lebanese musicians. I flipped when he wrote back to me and said that not only had he just returned from a tour with Fairouz – a living legend throughout the entire Arab world and a Lebanese icon – but that yes, he’d love to help get me connected. He recommended two oudists to study from, Ziad el Ahmadie and Ziyad Sahhab, and confirmed that they were both willing to teach me. Jean and I kept in touch throughout the spring, planning more of what we’d do once I got to Beirut on May 15th, as my original plan was.
Then the May conflict happened with the Hizbollah taking the Beirut airport and much of West Beirut hostage, and my trip got cancelled. I was pissed off and angry. Not at not being able to go, but I was fearing for the safety of all my old friends who were sending me dramatic e-mails from their homes in Hamra where they were being held captive, with gunfire in the streets and snipers on their roofs. In Finland we tend to have ‘kisastudios’ [you know, biting your nails at home watching the game] for ice hockey or football, but this made for a rather different kind of kisastudio over gmail and MSN.
Fortunately, things calmed down after about a week, and no one that I know of got hurt, although the violence did have casualties as always. The Hizbollah opened the airport again, West Beirut slowly came back to life, and the tent camp in downtown Beirut was taken down. I managed to postpone my flights to a surprise gap in my gig calendar, and I started rearranging everything so I could come down like I’d planned. Ziad el Ahmadie – who’d been very kind and open to suggest the idea of me studying the oud with him for free in exchange for me teaching him about jazz harmony – and I unfortunately couldn’t meet up anymore since he left Beirut two days before I got here to work with an opera in Geneva. I confirmed through Jean that Ziyad Sahhab would teach me, and things seemed to be back on track. I finally managed to come here on June 30th.
Since this blog is about Lebanon, I want to underline that I write nothing from a political stance. This is NOT a political blog. This is NOT a blog taking sectarian, religious or political sides. This is simply a diary about my personal experiences here, written not only to share what I see and hear, but also for me to have an outlet to organize my thoughts.
Peace on you.
-J
I know I do. I lived in many countries with my family throughout my childhood, moving back and forth from place to place between Finland, the Middle East and East Africa because of my father’s work – sometimes I might argue a tad more than the necessary dose. In many places, I lived for longer periods, but the year we spent in Beirut in ’95-’96 did a number on me. I’ve wanted to come back ever since. Throw in a fascination with Arabic culture and especially Arabic music, a couple of years trying to learn to play the oud (an 11-string fretless Arabic lute), a stroke of luck finding the right people from the Beirut music scene to study with, and I was more than thrilled to finally board that plane on June 29th after 12 years away.
As luck would have it, a shot-in-the-dark message to the right person through MySpace put it all together. I’d been trying to contact Lebanese music schools and conservatoires asking where I could get private instruction on the oud and in Arabic music, but never got a reply. Browsing through MySpace looking for Lebanese musicians – I even messaged oud master Rabih Abou Khalil – I came across a guy called Jean Madani, a Beiruti bass player. Never heard of him before, had nothing on his background, nothing. Sent him a message introducing myself, who I am, what I’ve been doing, and would he know any oud players I could possibly study with. It turned out Jean was one of the busiest players on the Lebanese music scene, and a regular character in bands and projects with the very best Lebanese musicians. I flipped when he wrote back to me and said that not only had he just returned from a tour with Fairouz – a living legend throughout the entire Arab world and a Lebanese icon – but that yes, he’d love to help get me connected. He recommended two oudists to study from, Ziad el Ahmadie and Ziyad Sahhab, and confirmed that they were both willing to teach me. Jean and I kept in touch throughout the spring, planning more of what we’d do once I got to Beirut on May 15th, as my original plan was.
Then the May conflict happened with the Hizbollah taking the Beirut airport and much of West Beirut hostage, and my trip got cancelled. I was pissed off and angry. Not at not being able to go, but I was fearing for the safety of all my old friends who were sending me dramatic e-mails from their homes in Hamra where they were being held captive, with gunfire in the streets and snipers on their roofs. In Finland we tend to have ‘kisastudios’ [you know, biting your nails at home watching the game] for ice hockey or football, but this made for a rather different kind of kisastudio over gmail and MSN.
Fortunately, things calmed down after about a week, and no one that I know of got hurt, although the violence did have casualties as always. The Hizbollah opened the airport again, West Beirut slowly came back to life, and the tent camp in downtown Beirut was taken down. I managed to postpone my flights to a surprise gap in my gig calendar, and I started rearranging everything so I could come down like I’d planned. Ziad el Ahmadie – who’d been very kind and open to suggest the idea of me studying the oud with him for free in exchange for me teaching him about jazz harmony – and I unfortunately couldn’t meet up anymore since he left Beirut two days before I got here to work with an opera in Geneva. I confirmed through Jean that Ziyad Sahhab would teach me, and things seemed to be back on track. I finally managed to come here on June 30th.
Since this blog is about Lebanon, I want to underline that I write nothing from a political stance. This is NOT a political blog. This is NOT a blog taking sectarian, religious or political sides. This is simply a diary about my personal experiences here, written not only to share what I see and hear, but also for me to have an outlet to organize my thoughts.
Peace on you.
-J
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