Essential Bellydance Neena & Veena
Reviewed by Anala Rabari
This complation CD contains 19 songs and comes in at under an 1 and half of play time. Most of the songs are around 5 minutes or less with one full routine track being close to 9 minutes. Artists include some of the most well known bellydance artist around such as the Upper Egypt Ensemble, the Mohamed Ali Ensemble and the Salatin El Tarab Orchestra. The songs included cover traditional and contemporary styles from Egyptian, Lebanese, Greek, Persian, Armenian, Turkish, and Iraqi. A wide varity of traditional rhythms and instruments are explored including chiftetelli, baladi, drum solos, the oud, the nay, and the kanoun.
I like this CD for its simple straight forwardness. There is a good mix of tempos, rhythms, and styles. The lengths of the songs are good for most American audiences and can be nicely combined together to create longer cohesive routinues if needed. I also like the way translations for the song titles are included as well very short background information on the song included; like if is a cane dance, a wedding dance, or a folk dance. Although, I'm not sure I would have classified the one tribal fusion piece as tribal fusion. I just wished they had included more information on the artists themselves. I think this will be a solid CD for those looking for traditional music or contemporary slants on more traditional music. I also think this CD would be a good introduction to bellydance music for those new to this music form and this dance form.