Hamza El Din

Hamza El Din ranks among the earliest African artists to reach broad audiences beyond the continent, recognized as a Nubian authority on the oud, the fretless lute. Many Western listeners first encountered his music through the Grateful Dead, who invited him onstage for occasional performances and benefited from his assistance arranging their Egyptian tour. His recordings played a central part in updating Nubian traditions, drawing on them to evoke daily existence and recount the experiences of Nubian communities.

Although he first prepared for a career in engineering, El Din shifted course and entered the Middle Eastern School of Music, where he started writing original material. While in Rome on a fellowship devoted to Western classical studies, he encountered American Gino Foreman, who introduced his compositions to Joan Baez and Bob Dylan; those connections led to a Vanguard recording agreement. His mid-1960s debut, Al Oud -- Instrumental and Vocal Music From Nubia, became one of the initial world-music releases to reach substantial Western audiences.

Throughout the later 1960s El Din resided primarily in the United States, at one point staying in guitarist Sandy Bull’s apartment. He accepted a succession of teaching posts across different American cities yet still found time to complete the 1968 Nonesuch album Escalay, widely regarded as an exemplary document of Nubian music. After that release his most prominent work is Eclipse, which gained fresh attention in the U.S. when Rykodisc reissued it on CD.