A Mixtape of Old & New Tunes From Sudan
This Quatertones mixtape celebrates old and new tunes from Sudan, and was compiled by Khaled Malas the afikra community. We’ve highlighted some of the featured musicians and bands and shared a brief introduction to get you curious.
Sudanese Artists You Should Know About
Sharhabil Ahmed
Sharhabil Ahmed is a Sudanese popular musician known for his distinct singing style, compositions, oud and guitar playing. He’s also known as “The King of Sudanese Jazz.” Born in 1935, Ahmed modernized Sudanese music by bringing western motifs with traditional Sudanese sounds together. Habibi Funk describes Ahmed’s music as a “unique combination of surf, rock’n’roll, funk, Congolese music and East African harmonies.” The label re-edited digital versions of some of Sharhabil’s songs in July 2020.
The Scorpions
Active at the same time as Sharhabil Ahmed, The Scorpions were somewhat of a rival band — and for a moment, according to the FT, were even simply “copyists of Ahmed”. Formed in the 1960s, the band featured musicians “keen to participate in what turned out to be a brief flowering of Khartoum rock and roll.” Their only LP, “Jazz, Jazz, Jazz”, was recorded in 1980 in Kuwait.
Oddisee
Sudanese-American rapper Oddisee’s music explores what it’s like to be a “third-culture” kid. In our interview with him at Sole DXB, he shared anecdotes of what it’s like to be “too Sudanese to perform at the Whitehouse” and yet “too American to perform in Amman.” He’s influenced by a combination of musical traditions, including Black American Jazz, Hip Hop and Gospel music. We spoke to Oddisee as part of a Sole DXB x afikra conversation. Listen here.
Kamal Keila
Another key fixture of Sudan’s Jazz scene, Kamal Keila helped to cultivate a vibrant musical culture before the country’s Islamist revolution of the 1980s. Apparently some people referred to him as the “James Brown” or “Felt Kuti” of Sudan. He has songs both in English and in Arabic. Habibi Funk points out that his English songs — free from censorship — are highly political compared to his Arabic music.
If you love the mixtape’s artwork as much as we did, you can get it on a T-shirt. We were inspired by the inaugural issue of the Journal of Sudanese Folklore, published in 1983 by the students of the Department of Folkloric Studies at the Institute of African and Asian Studies at Khartoum University. We discovered a copy of it via the awesome Vatrina Bookstore.
