Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Vol. 1 (1920)

Abdel Wahab and Umm Kulthum, the king and queen of Egyptian music from the 1920s on, represented two opposing approaches. While Kulthum was a traditionalist to the core, Abel Wahab believed in learning from Western music. Yet he too was a musical nationalist, renewing rather than diluting Egyptian tradition. This second of two classic recordings, done a quarter-century after its predecessor, shows Abdel Wahab's consistent development of long instrumental passages, a major element in his work, as well as the splendid singing of his maturity. ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music, Rovi