‘An Evening in Lebanon’: the obscure compilation that captured a musical revolution
A truly great album is much more than a simple collection of songs; as both a format and an art form, the album is capable of capturing a particular cultural moment in history. Thus, some albums are not only worth coming back to again and again for the lasting brilliance of the music encased in them but also as a historical artefact of the time period in which they were created. This is certainly the case when it comes to the obscure compilation album An Evening With Samira Tufick, which managed to capture the incredible cultural output of pre-war Lebanon despite being released via a tiny record label in New Jersey.
In the period following the Second World War, Lebanon fostered a particularly vibrant cultural sector. The nation has always had an incredibly rich landscape of music and art, going back centuries, but the 20th century saw a range of artists reinvent Lebanon’s traditional sounds, taking on influences of pop, rock, and even psychedelia. As such, a wealth of groundbreaking artists—Fairuz being a prominent example—emerged to define this period in Lebanon’s cultural history.
Simultaneously, the nation was experiencing a particularly turbulent period politically, which was then fueled by global events such as the Cold War or the mass exodus of Muslims from nearby Palestine following attacks on the population by Zionist forces. Of course, this delicate political situation quickly spurred on a variety of Lebanese artists to detail their struggles through music, challenging authority and establishing a groundbreaking voice for the Lebanese people.
Eventually, the political struggles of Lebanon and the outbreak of war in 1975 caused many citizens, including musical artists, to flee the nation. The spread of the Lebanese diaspora came with a newfound need to publish Lebanese music overseas, which inspired the creation of Alkawakeb Records in Newark, New Jersey. Established by Anthony M Abraham, most probably during the 1970s, the label released a variety of popular Arabic and Lebanese music, capturing the spirit of that period in Lebanon’s cultural history in the process.
One of the greatest releases put out by Alkawakeb was a compilation record, originally entitled An Evening With Samira Tufick. Tufick was one of Lebanon’s premier vocalists and actors during the 1960s and 1970s, becoming an iconic figure of the nation’s cultural exports. While the compilation album did feature her track ‘Yaburdayan Aamar Yaburdene’, it also featured artists like Wadih El Safi, Mary Buchara, and Mehdi Zaarour among others.
Essentially, the album is an awe-inspiring smorgasbord composed of some of Lebanon’s greatest musical artists and performers, most of whom were based in the capital of Beirut. As all great albums should do, An Evening With Samira Tufick – recently republished by Canary Records under the title An Evening in Lebanon Before the War – managed to capture the zeitgeist of the time, offering an unparalleled account of that prosperous period within Lebanon’s artistic, cultural history, just before it was sadly cut short by the outbreak of civil war in 1975.
Lasting 15 years and costing the lives of an estimated 150,000 people, the civil war was among the most destructive and bloodthirsty that the world has seen in recent years. In fact, Lebanon is still suffering from the political and social effects of the war to this day, in addition to facing constant airstrikes at the hands of the Israeli state.
Nevertheless, the music created and published during the pre-civil-war period in Lebanon still stands as a testament to the nation’s incredible artistic output, which also continues to this day. An Evening in Lebanon Before the War remains both an incredible Arabic pop record and a vital historical source on the pre-war landscape of Beirut and Lebanon.
An Evening in Lebanon Before the War by Canary Records