Ali Hassan Kuban made connections in his life: His music connected his Nubian hometown of Gotha with the music of Cairo and then the broader jazz world in the 1980s. And the Berlin collective aJan has now connected Hassan Kuban’s music to that of the present.
Piranha Records, which reissued the absolute slapper of an album From Nubia to Cairo last fall, has released aJan’s remix of Hassan Kuban’s “Mabruk.”
Perhaps as a concession to shrinking attention spans, or maybe just to make life easier for DJs who are playing “Mabruk” at places other than Egyptian weddings, aJan has tightened up the song from six minutes to a tick over three. We’ve had 47 Soul on rotation pretty heavily in the office lately, so this fusion of old and new sounds is hitting us right in that sweet spot.
Check out the track here:
