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Just Good Listening ---
On-line sales only within the U.S.
For orders outside of the U.S. we recommend that you visit MAQAM at http://www.maqam.com/ where all of Mary Ellen Donalds products are available for purchase.
| Beautiful and Exciting Music for Belly Dance Performance & Just Good Listening |
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Gems of the Middle East CD's
These CD's feature Mimi Spencer on qanun (zither) and
voice, and Mary Ellen Donald on doumbec and tambourine. An often
recorded instrumentalist, Mimi Spencer made her singing debut as a
recorded vocalist in the Gems series, singing in five Middle Eastern
languages.
The Gems CD's reflect the rich musical partnership that had developed between Mimi and Mary Ellen as they performed together for over 20 years. Each CD contains 15 pieces with an ample supply of entrance pieces, slow pieces, drum solos, tip music, and finale music. The drum solos are hot, uniquely constructed, very danceable, and a perfect length with deep resonant sounds of the djembe bringing to them an African flavor.
Good News for Belly Dancers!
With
the use of readily available duplicating technology, you can piece
together selections from the Gems CD's in a wide variety of
combinations creating all kinds of new dance routines of your
choice. The timing for each piece is noted to help you fulfill the
timing needs of your performances. The advantage of making dance
routines with pieces from the Gems CD's is continuity of music, the
same band, not a hodgepodge of 3 or 4 different bands thrown together.
Praise for the Gems CD's:
"This is the
best recording of Middle Eastern music I've ever heard, so balanced and
clear."
- Abdallah Kdouh, oudist and singer.
"Great; that's
how the tambourine ought to sound on a recording."
- Tony Lammam,
drummer and tambourinist.
Gems
of the Middle East: Belly Dance Favorites from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, and
Greece
(released on
cassettes, 1999; remastered and issued on CD's, 2002)
Gems of the Middle East
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| Gems of the Middle East
CD Volume II
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| Gems of the Middle East
CD Volume III
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Why you should get the books along with the Gems CD's.
Dancers, your performance can be more powerful if you know the rhythm changes in your music. Drummers, it is so important to understand the rhythmical structure of the music so that you can play it with authority. Instrumentalists, your melodies will come alive if you know what rhythms support them.
Gems of the Middle East Books: A Rhythmical Analysis (1999)
All books in this series are
spiral-bound with protective laminated covers, 8 by 11
inches.
In the Gems books, Mary Ellen makes a ground-breaking contribution to Middle Eastern music education by presenting a complete rhythmical analysis for each piece on the corresponding CD's with numerous musical transcriptions of the fancy patterns actually performed on the CD's.
To learn how to play the rhythms mentioned in the rhythmical analysis in the Gems books, we recommend the Middle Eastern Rhythms CD's. On these CD's, Mary Ellen plays each rhythm for 4-5 minutes on doumbec and tambourine. We invite you to visit CD's Designed for Extended Practice, where the Middle Eastern Rhythms CD's and Practice Music For Drummers and Dancers are described.
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Volume I This book includes the rhythmical analyses of all the pieces on Volume I of the Gems CD's. In addition, there is a 25 page autobiographical sketch where Mary Ellen speaks of her blindness, her battles with cancer, her personal, professional, and spiritual life from childhood through December of 1998. Its guaranteed to make you laugh and touch your heart. 70 pages, US $25.00 Sample
Page from Volume I (pdf file)
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Volume 2 This book includes the rhythmical analyses of all the pieces on Volume II of the Gems CD's. 42 pages, US $20.00 |
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Volume 3 This book includes the rhythmical analyses of all the pieces on Volume III of the Gems CD's. 36 pages, US $20.00 |
To learn how to play the rhythms mentioned in the rhythmical analysis in the Gems books, we recommend the Middle Eastern Rhythms CD's.
For books and CD's in which Mary Ellen gives in-depth presentations on the playing of doumbec, tambourine, tar, and cymbals we invite you to visit Instructional Materials for Doumbec, Tambourine, Tar, Cymbals & Belly Dance.
Encore! Bert's
Baladi: Belly Dance Music
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Tracks 1, 2 and 3 features Mary Ellen Donald on doumbec and tambourine, Yoko Abe on violin and viola, and various Egyptian musicians who traveled to San Francisco to perform with the King Tut Exhibit in 1979. They are Magdy Helmy on nay (cane flute) and mizmar (reed instrument), Yusef Mostafa on doumbec, and Galal Ktob on tambourine, duff, and mazhar. Tracks 4, 5 and 6 features Mary Ellen Donald on doumbec, tambourine, and cymbals, Michael Gruber on woodwinds and metal drum, and George Mundy on bass guitar. |
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Nazir Latouf: Vocals, Oud,
Accordion & Keyboard Music and lyrics written, arranged & produced by Nazir Latouf except composition of *. |
Arabian
Passion (2003) Arabian Passion has something for everyone!
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Right
Where I Want To Be (2001) Music from Egypt, Turkey, Armenia, Greece and the heart of Mimi Spencer, Qanun Artist Mimi Spencer: qanun (Middle Eastern zither) Vince Delgado: riqq (tambourine) Tom Shader: acoustic bass Elegant trio rendering impeccably Mimis favorite pieces of music, including two originals. Mary Ellen: Mimi Spencer, my dear friend and musical colleague for over fifteen years, was a perfectionist, a passionate musician, and a sensitive artist. All of these qualities shine through her music on this CD. Mimi was very happy right after its release. She told me that the actual sound of her qanun was the richest that had ever been recorded of her. Right Where I Want To Be should be right at the top of your list of Middle Eastern music to be added to your collection. I could not carry a tune until I was about six years old, and my mother feared I was tone-deaf. Naturally I became a musician. After that, I studied classical European music (college music major); Japanese and Korean music and ethnomusicology under Dr. Robert Garfias; classical North Indian music with Dr. Ali Akbar Khan, Shankar Ghosh, Sanjukta Ghosh, Mr. & Mrs. Jnan Prakash Ghosh; and Middle Eastern music with Ishmael, Vince Delgado, Dr. Ali Jihad Racy, Muhammad al-Akkad, Necati elik, Gksel Baktagir, Halil Karaduman, Georges Lammam, to name a few. |
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| Ive also learned much from the many musicians with
whom Ive worked, notably Yusuf Pasha, George and Jad Elias, and
George Dabaie. Ive recorded CDs with many people including
Jazayer (my band), and studio work for Mickey Hart and George Lucas
(with composer Larry Rosenthal) among others. Ive written
five books of musical transcriptions; I am the president of
nonprofit Near Eastern Music West, Inc. and I publish a newsletter, The Near Eastern Music Calendar. I rarely play anything the same way twice. Usually this is on purpose.
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Valentine to Eden
(1985) Mary Ellen: Shortly after the release
of Valentine to Eden, the Oakland Ballet fell in love with the
selection Tar Marmalade and decided to include it in their
performance repertoire. They invited Doug and me to play it
with them for Friday and Saturday night performances at the famous
Paramont Theater in Oakland. Needless to say, we were thrilled
and honored at the prospect of performing at such a prestigious
venue. Then it suddenly hit us that Tar Marmalade was
an eleven minute improvisation which a duo had choreographed to beat
for beat. There was no way that Doug was going to be able to
repeat what he did on the guitar. The burden fell on my
shoulders. I had to count over one hundred measures in a row
of the baladi rhythm, switch to malfouf for a certain number of
times and change again, etc. The pressure of keeping track of
all of those measures, I must say, took away some of the thrill of
our performance. And we did it! Light Rains music was featured in
the Robert Altman movie about the Joffrey Ballet called, The
Company. |
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Doug Adams: Violin, Guitar, Recorder, Dulcimer, Voice, Guero De Ann Adams: Finger Cymbals Darrell Adams: Bass Mary Ellen Donald: Doumbec, Tar, Mazhar, Tambourine Laura Roland: English horn, oboe Joan Jean-Renaud: Cello Scott Le Vally: Congas, Cabasa, Bell Rick Phillipp: Cymbals, Chimes, Bells, Vibra Slap |
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