teela

Since things are going on with the forum, I"m reposting things completely. I just discovered Eddit Kochak's music and he's got a lovely variety of music. Could anyone tell me more about him? Thanks

Suheir

There's an article about him here: Artemis and Christy honor Eddie Kochak for the Gilded Serpent

Marya

I used to like Eddie Kochek a lot too. But after awhile his music all started to sound the same.

He and George Abdo developed what they called the Amer-Arab sound that was wildly popular in the '60's and became the "sound" of Belly Dance. They used traditional tunes but arranged them to be played with western instruments.

Now I prefer music from the Middle Eastern Countries themselves.

Marya

teela

Thank you all for the information you provided. I still prefer the regular middle eastern music but his music has some wonderful chiftitelli music I can practice the slower moves to and he tells what the rhythm is so I know what i'm dancing to. That is why I like him.

belly_dancer

I am PRETTY sure Kharmine on this forum has interviewed him... you might try contacting her.

Shanazel

I was just going to say Khamine interviewed him last year and found him to be quite a character. He gave her Serena Wilson's home phone number so she could interview Serena as well, but alas, that lovely lady died a few days later.

Eddie never appealed to me as much as George Abdo did, but I still like the Amerabian sound. I am such a cultural lowbrow.

Kharmine

Yep, I did interview Eddie "The Sheik" Kochak for Zagareet magazine. He's still performing and teaching, living in Brooklyn where he was born and raised in an Arab-American community. Terrific character, sounds like someone in "Guys and Dolls."

When American women started learning belly dance from the immigrants, children of immigrants, and imported performers, they were unfamiliar with traditional Middle Eastern, Greek and Turkish music. There was also not a whole lot of traditional musicians available in the States who could play for every performance. In fact, it was more common for musicians of different ethnic backgrounds to get together and learn to play each other's traditional music to suit as many gigs as possible.

Kochak, George Abdo, Freddie Elias, Gus Valli, and a host of other musicians took their parents' music, basically, and translated it into something Westerners could move to more easily. And make it easier for musicians of different nationalities to play the music as well.

(Actually, this music tradition began in Cairo in the 1920s, right along with the invention of raqs sharqi. The ritiziest nightclubs wanted to attract the well-heeled Europeans and Americans so they put together Westernized bands to play versions of traditional music that would appeal to that clientele.)

Kochak and his colloborator, Hakkim Obadia (from Iran), specifically took traditional pieces, arranged and labeled them so that American dancers knew what would work with what kind of movements.

Hundreds of early American dancers are grateful to people like Kochak that they didn't have to perform to recordings from "Fiddler On the Roof" and "Zorba the Greek" when they couldn't get live musicians who knew the traditional music.

It was also a way for the second-generation to appreciate the music of their elders. Arrangers and musicians like these men were hugely popular not only in the immigrant communities, but also in the host countries of traditional music.

In case anyone's interested, I have an article on the old record albums and this era on The Gilded Serpent - Charmaine revives interest in Vintage LPs for the Gilded Serpent -

So, yeah, maybe it's kind easy to look down on this stuff -- but the tradition of adapting Oriental music into something with a Western influence is at least as old as belly dance itself. And is still going on.

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Yemaya49

I have all his CD's. He is fabulous!