Make Me Want to Dance

Rhythm. Technique. Feeling. Simon Shaheen. Shaheen is a talented Arab musician. I’ve never crossed paths with this type of music before; it definitely wasn’t something I was expecting. However, it was new and intriguing. At first, the music reminded me of that type of music you hear when you walk into a Greek restaurant that’s playing in the background. In the first song, Simon played the violin. He described the song to be based on a beautiful dancer. You could listen to the melody and envision this magnificent woman moving her body elegantly and smoothly. The music was raspy, deep, and sort of mysterious. This type of sound coming from the violin was unexpected, but I enjoyed it. Not only was Shaheen a talented musician, he also surrounded himself with others that possessed the same talent. The band was more than just an individual or the main performer, but a group, which was nice to see. This doesn’t always happen in pop culture bands we see today. They all worked harmoniously with each other. The group played instruments including a violin, oud, and some sort of flute, bass, drums, and tambourine. During this first song, the thought of Greek influence popped in to my head yet again. This mental picture of a Greek wedding appeared including people dancing in a circle, throwing dishes, and saying “opa” as an act of celebration. ODU! Finally the Oud made its first appearance. Simon in Spain composed this next song called “the Arch”. The music fused multiple different musical types like flamingo and African rhythm. The sound of the Oud was a delight to my ears. There were quick bursts of sound. His fingers were moving rapidly and I thought that it was extremely impressive because I know I could never do that. The feeling of wanting to dance overcame me. At that moment in time, I wished I could flamingo dance. This sparked this vision of a movie in Spain, like a romantic scene with sensual dancing between a man and woman. As the performance went on, the songs were upbeat and the tempo slowly quickened. There were periods of amazingly fast speed Oud playing. Overall, this was my favorite art series performance because it was something truly out of the ordinary.