Ali Hassan Kuban - Biography
By J Poet
Ali Hassan Kuban is one of the most important Nubian musicians of the 20th century. Since Nubia was wiped off the face of the earth by Egypt’s Aswan Dam in 1970, Kuban and Hamza El Din were the two main forces keeping the traditional music of Nubia alive. Kuban only produced four albums widely available in the west, but his early work on cassette, both as a bandleader and producer of other Nubian and Egyptian singers sold millions of copies throughout the Arab world.
Kuban was born in 1933, in Gotha, Egypt, a small village in what was once Nubia. Before becoming a professional musician, he sang for passengers on ferries traveling between Sudan, Egypt and Nubia. His family moved to Cairo in 1942 where he studied music at the Egyptian Boy Scout’s College, picking up clarinet and girba (Egyptian bagpipes.) He was sickly as a youth and concentrated on writing and arranging music, fearful that his vocals were not strong enough to succeed as a singer. At 18, he was good enough to appear at the Opera of Cairo, where he played in a traditional band and in the orchestra for operas, including Aida. Kuban's first band played traditional Nubian music at week-long wedding celebrations. When he heard an African-American jazz band from Harlem playing in a Cairo club, he was impressed by the power of western instruments. He built a new band that included sax, trumpet, electric guitar and organ. He also began translating traditional Nubian songs into Arabic, since many of them were in dialects spoken only my small Nubian minorities.
Kuban’s new sound caught on, at first with young people, then later by the hugh Nubian population that came to Cairo after the Aswan Dam flooded their homeland. He stayed busy playing weddings and Nubian ceremonies, but when the world music craze of the 80s came along, he decided to take his music to the international stage. His first gig outside of Egypt was at Berlin’s Heimatklaenge Festival in 1989. He was a sensation and it led to a contract with the Piranha world music label. Kuban's international debut From Nubia to Cairo (1989 Piranha/1991 Shanachie) collected his biggest hits from recordings made in Egypt including “Sukker, Sukker, Sukker” and “Amira.” The band sounds like a cross between a traditional group and an Egyptian garage band with extended grooves that really give dancers a chance to work up a sweat. Walk Like a Nubian (1994 Pirhana), his first studio recording for the international market, benefits from a cleaner sound, making the grooves even more relentless. Nubian Magic (1994 Mercator) includes two remixes of “Maria-Maria” to prove Kuban wasn’t standing still, but the original take with his band is just as compelling.
Kuban died of a heart attack in 2001 just before the release of Real Nubian: Cairo Wedding Classics (2001 Pirhana). This last album is made up mainly of Kuban compositions that show his affection for James Brown and American soul music with sizzling horn charts and Kuban’s fervent vocals, still sounding like a young man at 68. The Rough Guide to Ali Hassan Kuban (2002 World Music Network) gives a concise overview of his greatest hits.