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Rango are:
HASSAN EL NAGGER aka HASSAN BERGAMON (b. 1948): ‘the
King of Rango’. Elder statesman of Rango and chief mallet-
master and tanbura player.
ESSAM FARAG aka TUTU (b. 1946): vocals, shakar shakes.
Cairo-based feathered frontman of the band, sometimes mis-
taken for a relative of Sammy Davis Jnr owing to his fancy
footwork and fondness for whisky.
ZAINAB MANSOUR (b. 1946): vocals, frame drums, Egyptian
tabla. Zar mistress and revered spirit healer.
EL SAYED ABD ALLA aka JACKAMO THE GENIE (b. 1948): tan-
bura player and Zar master. Jackamo is famed for knowing the
right song to play for each spirit.
KHALIL SAID aka CHICKEN KILLER (b. 1947): djembe and man-
gor (percussion belt). Veteran rango percussionist and singer
from a long lineage of Sudanese musicians. Known in the band
as ‘Chicken Killer’ owing to the illustrations of fowls on his cer-
emonial galibaya. In reality he is not the Sudanese answer to
Ozzy Osbourne – although it would be great spin if he was.
HOSSAM MOHAMED aka VEEKA (b. 1984): vocalist, known for
popular wedding and Nubian songs. Aged 26, Veeka is the
youngest Rango member and a favourite with the laaadieeees.
YASSER MOHAMED (b. 1973): master bongo player.
ABDELMONEIM AHMED (b. 1961): ritual percussionist. Master
of the recycled aerosol can shaker and mangor goat-horn belt.
MOLLY FARAG (b. 1964): vocals. One of six or so floating mem-
bers of the Rango collective in Cairo.
Z
akaria persuaded Hassan to take up the instrument
again, which he’d learned as a boy, encouraged by his
mother who was a Zar mistress – and despite strong
opposition from his uncle. As a teenager, Hassan had
learnt the repertoire from the rango masters in Cairo
and like all rango musicians he had to become an expert tanbura
player too, though conversely not all tanbura players learn rango.
Slowly Hassan and Zakaria built the band and worked out the
repertoire, making the Zar songs fit the framework of a public
performance. They also included wedding music and the songs of
the Sudanese slaves who were brought to Egypt in the mid 1900s
to work in the cotton fields, and as conscripts in the Egyptian
army half a century before. The slaves brought their music and
instruments with them, which were promptly banned by the
Egyptian authorities; the beginning of the public suppression of
the rango repertoire.
During the gig at the Barbican’s LSO St Luke’s, which Clive
Davis in The Times called “one of the most joyous and exhilarating
concerts of the year”, the rango, positioned centre at the back of
the stage, is kept under wraps. An increasing sense of excitement
builds up to the point of its unveiling, which is unleashed when
Hassan finally plays it, double mallets in both hands, dazzling with
his dexterity. I wonder if this spellbinding music will die with him.
Michael Whitewood, the man behind 30IPS, the record com-
pany putting out Rango’s debut album Bride Of The Zar in May,
emailed me: “There’s still no candidate for the position of Has-
san’s apprentice. Maybe the album will change that situation. [In
the meantime], Hassan Bergamon still regularly performs in Zar in
Cairo as does Jackamo and Zanieb and there’s a warmth towards
the musicians in those Zar communities that is absent elsewhere
in Egypt where folk musicians are typically thought by the public
to be either Gypsies or something for the tourists. In Zar the musi-
cians are regarded as conduits for the spirits to enter this world,
and as such, people who go to a Zar healing sincerely believe the
musicians have this ability and for that reason the musicians are
cautiously revered.”
But as Zakaria Ibrahim explained, it’s a difficult process mov-
ing the Zar repertoire out of the very underground spiritual arena
into the public performance domain, one reason why the band’s
repertoire is mixed up not just with wedding songs and slave
songs, but Nubian and old Sudanese/ Egyptian army songs.
It’s a mix that works. Rango is coming back to the UK in July. I
can only hope that building on their success here will help those
back home realise just how wonderful and exciting their music is.
If it could be taken up in Egypt with the enthusiasm it was met
with here, it’d be sure of a long happy life.
Rango’s Sudani Voodoo EP is out on 30IPS.
www.30ips.com/rango F
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