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Artist
Daoud & Saleh Al-Kuwaity
7+ albums
worldfolktraditionalWorld Musicfolklore
about
The Al-Kuwaity brothers Saleh (1908-1986) and Daud (1910-1976) were Kuwait-born Jewish-Iraqi musicians. Originally called Daud and Saleh Ezra, their father, a merchant, moved from the Iraqi city of Basra together with some fifty other Jewish families to form the Jewish community of Kuwait. When Saleh was ten years old, and Daud eight, they received a gift from their uncle who came back from a business trip to India: a violin and an oud. Saleh began studying Iraqi and Kuwaiti music under Khaled Al-Bakar, a famous Kuwaiti oud player of the time. He soon began to compose his own music. His first song, "Walla Ajbani Jamalec" (By god, I love your beauty), is still heard on Gulf radio stations. While still children the brothers started performing before dignitaries in Kuwait and making a name for themselves as child prodigies. Soon Iraqi record companies began recording the brothers and distributing their music nationally. Because of their success, the Al-Kuwaity family moved back to Basra, where Saleh joined the qanun master Azur, learning the maqam style of composition, considered the highest and most prestigious of all styles in Arab music. The brothers started performing in the nightclubs of Basra, and after a while – a result of their growing success – the family moved to Baghdad. The Iraqi capital, one of the biggest musical centres in the Arab world at the time, welcomed the brothers. Saleh used to play violin and compose, Daud performing the compositions on oud and vocal
why this is interesting
# On the Al-Kuwaity Brothers These recordings capture a historically vital yet overlooked moment in Arab music—the cosmopolitan sound of early twentieth-century Kuwait, where Iraqi maqam traditions met Indian influences and Jewish musicians shaped regional aesthetics. The brothers' compositions reveal how musical identity operated across religious and geographic boundaries, challenging narrow narratives about "authentic" Arab music. What emerges is technically sophisticated and emotionally nuanced work: intricate vocal ornamentation paired with oud and violin interplay that feels both disciplined and deeply expressive. Their archive matters not merely as historical artifact but as evidence of creative communities now largely erased, inviting listeners to hear complexity where homogeneity is often assumed
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