El Masreyeen
Band Members:
Hany Shenouda: Keyboard Iman Younes: Vocal
Fady El Alfy: Vocal Ayman Seridar: Vocal
Bibo: Percussion Ra'ef: Violin
Kerdani : Drums Sika: Bass Guitar
Biography:
This iconic band was formed in 1977 by Hany Shenouda, and it was the first real music band in Egypt. It sadly disbanded after the departures of singers Mona Aziz and Iman Younes, and the passing of Tahseen Yalmaz and composers Salah Jaheen and AbdelRahim Mansour. The band influenced modern Egyptian music and song in many ways.
According to Hany Shenouda, the credit for the formation of Al Masreyeen Band goes to the internationally acclaimed writer Naguib Mahfouz.
Hany Shenouda says this about the formation of the band: "After I graduated, I got together with a group of guys, and we played covers of Western music tracks and songs. We toured a lot of countries such as Lebanon and Syria with our group, and we always called on accomplished musicians to have a look at us and appreciate our talents. One day we were visited by Naguib Mahfouz, who worked in journalism at the time, and he asked me about our music and the songs we played. We were performing a collection of foreign songs (such as Italian, Spanish and French) at the time, and he asked me why we couldn't perform this style of songs in Arabic. We unanimously replied that we weren't interested in performing in Arabic. When he inquired we answered that the introductions were too long, the songs had no harmonic structure and that they had a lot of additions and repetitions."
The group then started working on Arabic songs, then they were visited by Shawqi Hegab and AbdelRahim Mansour, who asked Hany Shenouda to produce an album for singer Mohamed Mounir; "Alemooni Eneiki" (Your Eyes Taught Me). This album was a failure; the record company decided to transfer the songs from disc to cassette, which was not widespread at the time, and also because Mohamed Mounir wasn't very famous then. It was then when the idea of forming a band was born, and Hany Shenouda joined the musicians who played on Mounir's first album, and released their first album Ahebak Laa (Love You Not). It was a big hit, because that style of songs was new and unprecedented to the audience, nobody had played like that before. The same company that produced Mounir's first album launched another album called "Binitwiled" (We are Born). That album made Mounir famous, and sold over 40,000 copies. The company was encouraged to re-launch the "Alemooni Eneiki" album and this time it was a huge success.
Al Masreyeen band was officially formed on December 8th 1977, and other bands such as 4M, The Friends and Day and Tiba started to gain prominence after that. Soon, 128 bands registered in the Authors and Composers Society. So the day the band was formed would always be remembered, Hany Shenouda composed "The Day of December 8th" and the band performed it soon after. From then on the performances and albums rolled and the band pushed the boundaries and touched on subjects nobody imagined before. The band also used harmonies and counterpoints, and introduced proper structures for their songs such as non-monaural harmonies, which means that it is not monophonic (one voice), but polyphonic (two or more independent melodic voices). Al Masreyeen reunited in 2009 through their concerts at the Sawi Culturewheel after the addition of singers Ayman Saridar and Fady Al-Alfy.
The current lineup is Hany Shenouda on keyboards, Iman Younes, Fady Al-Alfy and Ayman Saridar (vocals), Bibo on percussions, Raef on the violin, Kerdany on drums and Sika on bass guitar.
Discography:
Bahebak Laa (1977)
Horreya (1979)
Banaat Keteer (1980)
Ibda Min Gedeed (1981)
Mashya El Sanyoura (1985)
Hazz El Adala (1988)
