Musician Dr. Al Fatih Hussein and Wad Al Amin: Brotherhood, Artistic Friendship Ties (2-2)
Musician Dr. Al-Fatih Hussein shares his memories with Wad Al-Amin
Sudan Events- Interview – Magda Hassan
* He would get angry if a mistake occurred during rehearsals.
* Forming the Salamander band gave us one of the most difficult choices…!
* When I returned from Russia, I decided not to stand behind any artist as a musician..!
*, On his last trip to America, he told me that he would not return due to circumstances…!
Musician Dr. Al-Fatih Hussein continues his telephone conversation from his residence in Cairo, with “Sudan Events” newspaper, discussing his memories with his friend, the late artist Mohamed Al-Amin, who worked with him as a musician in his band, thus fulfilling a dream that has accompanied him since he was a student.
In the previous episode, Hussein talked about the popularity of Wad Al-Min, and his daily concerts, which exhausted the band. In the next episode, a stage of his relationship with the Bashkatib, starting with the founding of the (Samandal band )which marked the end of their artistic relationship with the Wad al-Amin band, and developments during his return from Russia..
“He Will Come” takes a month in rehearsals:
Rehearsals were taking him a lot of time. I remember that the rehearsals for the song “He Will Come” lasted for a month, because it is a big, complicated song, full of stanzas , and it includes changing scales and changing rhythms. It is the only song that took us a lot of time, and the rehearsals for “Zad Al-Shajoun” did not take the same amount of time.
In rehearsal, Mohamed Al-Amin is very precise in executing the musical phrases and the method of performance, and he does not tolerate the occurrence of any mistake. Rather, he gets angry if a mistake occurs.
He always strives to improve intonation. We strive with him, and he does not present any song to the audience unless he improves it.
The story of the appearance of the Salamander band: –
As students, we all formed a band, and we had our own ambitions.
Including that we aspired to be our own independent artistic personalities, so we set out to form the ( Samandal Band) and I took the initiative, as we started with a (trio) trio, two violins and a guitar, Mohamed Bass, Merghani Al-Zein, and myself with the guitar.
During our work with Mohamed Al-Amin, we would go to universities, where we would present our work in listening sessions, at the end of which we would join Mohamed Al-Amin’s concert.
We became famous as a band, which in turn grew, and we were faced with two difficult choices: either we create our own project, or we work with Mohamed Al-Amin. We were coordinating between our work and his parties, but after a while he got hurt and had to look for others, or we had to come from our side with replacements.
Brotherhood…and artistic friendship:-
Then came the period of my stay in Egypt, a period during which I was cut off from Sudan, but whenever I return to the country, I continue to cooperate with concerts with Mohamed Al-Amin, as the relationship between us became friendship and brotherhood, an artistic friendship.
I listen to his new songs before they are presented, and the additions, and he differs from artists in that His songs are not similar to each other. He may take an entire year to compose a poem, as part of an attempt to avoid the similarity of the melodies. He consults even the verses of the poem about them with the poet.
Our relationship of brotherhood and friendship continued.
We would visit each other, and I would work with him if the guitarist in particular was absent at the Officers’ Club parties.
When I decided to achieve my personality: –
I had decided, after I returned from Russia, not to stand behind an artist, with all due respect to them. I decided to go towards pure music, so that I could be my character, like Burai Muhammad Dafallah and Bashir Abbas, and somehow, I succeeded in that, and the days counted. He used to visit me and I visited him until one day he was traveling to America.
As is his custom every year, he visits one of his children. Last February, he was traveling with his wife and youngest son, Yasser.
He told me that he would not return, due to circumstances.
It was Allah will.
He traveled and never returned… and I was in Riyadh when I received the news of his death, which pained me to no end.
He was a loyal friend, I cannot describe him. With words, he has an artistic experience that will not be repeated.