tchandler - 5-23-2006 at 12:00 PM
Today, Hamza el Din passed away. He died from complications after brain surgery at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.
He touched all of us.
Ronny Andersson - 5-23-2006 at 12:08 PM
Very sad news 
TruePharaoh21 - 5-23-2006 at 12:30 PM
... I'm in shock.
He and his family are in our prayers.
TP21
SamirCanada - 5-23-2006 at 12:34 PM
Oh my God...
what bad news.
Allah yIrhamo....
Jameel - 5-23-2006 at 12:59 PM
He couldn't have been too old. God rest his soul.
revaldo29 - 5-23-2006 at 01:06 PM
How very sad. We are all creatures of God and to him we shall return.
Amos - 5-23-2006 at 01:19 PM
when i was 17 years old i bought a hamza el din cd. living in maine in the northeastern US, there is not a lot of exposure to oud and his music was
some of the first that i had heard. i still perform many of his arrangements regularly. he was a great inspiration to me, and although i have pursued
a different kind of music, his compositions and beautiful voice will always be with me. god bless his journey to god.
May God rest his soul
sydney - 5-23-2006 at 04:08 PM
DJdog - 5-23-2006 at 04:38 PM
Those angels with harps are going to get a marvelous, miraculous musical surprise when Hamza starts to play in heaven!!
revaldo29 - 5-23-2006 at 04:42 PM
Hey guys, how about some recordings or pictures in memory of Hamza El Deen? If anyone has any recordings or songs, please post them here.
Monty88 - 5-23-2006 at 07:08 PM
Hamza el Din was the man who introduced me to the oud, and has also been a big inspiration to me. This is very sad news, particularly to me. May our
thoughts be with this wonderful musician.
In memory...
oud_laud_luth_lute_liuto - 5-24-2006 at 06:39 AM
my prayer for Hamza
journeyman - 5-24-2006 at 07:46 AM
Very sad news. His music was pure inspiration and truth.
John Erlich - 5-24-2006 at 09:31 AM
In honor of Hamza, my favorite lines from Jalaluddin Rumi:
Oh fly, of fly, O my soul-bird,
fly to your primordial home!
You have escaped from the cage now-
your wings are spread in the air.
Oh travel from brackish water
now to the fountain of life!
Return from the place of the sandals
now to the high seat of souls!
Go on! Go on! we are going,
and we are coming, O soul,
From this world of separation
to union, a world beyond worlds!
(translated by Annemarie Schimmel)
His music was very inspiring to me--simple and heartfelt, infused with a Sufi-like spirit. I only met him once, many years ago, but he seemed like a
nice man. I am glad I was able to help him (in a very, very small way) and he showed his openness to a beginning oud player.
He will be greatly missed.
http://www.hamzaeldin.com/ (Updated to about 2001)
Peace,
John
Mike - 5-24-2006 at 12:55 PM
This is really very sad news, but we wish him the best in the next life and comfort to all his family and friends.
I received this information from Wael.
----------------------------------------------
Ustadh Shaykh Hamza Al-Din passed from this life 8:20 p.m. Monday 22 May 2006- 25 Rabi ath-Thani 1427
"`Innaa lillaahi wa `innaa `illayhi raji'uun" - "We belong to Allah, and unto Him is our return"
Janazat Funeral Prayer will be conducted Wednesday 24 May 2006 - after Zuhr Salat - 1:15 p.m.
Janazat Salat Location: Oakland Islamic Center Mosque, 515
31st St. (at Telelgraph), Oakland, California
Internment will follow at Valley Memorial Park, 650 Bugeia Lane, Novato (from Hghwy. 101, go East at Atherton Ave. exit, to Bugeia Ln.; from Hghwy 37,
go West at Atherton Ave Exit, to Bugeia Ln.)
Info: mosque: (510) 654-4306 cemetery: (415) 897-9609
Shaykh Hamza Al-Din was beloved loved among people from many ways and communities. His grace, his humor, his exquisite adab, his wisdom, and his
magnificent music will be sorely missed.
A public memorial event is being planned, and will be announced as soon as we have details.
Hamza Al-Din was our friend and teacher. It was from Sh. Hamza and Sh. Shamsuddin Ahmed that we learned to make our salat. We treasure his teaching of
music and rythm, and his gift of the Tar from his culture to our own.
We were reminded, years ago, Hamza was told of a friend who was ill and dying. Hamza responded, "What about the rest of us? Is anyone of us
staying?".
May Allah subhana wa ta'ala be Merciful to Hamza's soul, forgive him his faults, cover his errors, raise his spiritual stature, and grant him an
exalted station in Paradise. Amin.
Sidi - 5-24-2006 at 03:09 PM
Inna Li'Allah wa inna ilayhi raji'oun...alf rahma wa nour 3ala el faqid
This is very sad news...I sincerely feel deep sorrow for his departure. May god grant him mercy and reward him with everlasting life in paradise. My
prayers for his family.
-Sidi
Elias - 5-24-2006 at 11:50 PM
Oh my God what a so sad news.........we will have always his music with us....a great man and a great musician...
JT - 5-25-2006 at 02:24 AM
A great loss indeed...may his tunes live on in our hearts and God reward him for his great contribution.
God Bless,
JT
mavrothis - 5-25-2006 at 01:15 PM
Hank Levin informed me of his passing a few days ago. It's very sad, but at the same time, I feel sure that he is in heaven and very happy. Without
ever having met him, through his playing and singing, I feel like he's given me kind advice and support many times. I guess that's the kind of person
he was.
You all probably know how beautiful his famous Nahat oud is. Picture that oud, and then think that as beautiful as that instrument is, heaven is even
more beautiful.
I'm sure he is happy. 
m
Alan - 5-25-2006 at 05:00 PM
Man bad week for great oudist. First George and now Hamza. May God bless their souls.
oudmaker - 5-25-2006 at 10:30 PM
Allah rahmet eylesin
Dincer
spyros mesogeia - 5-25-2006 at 11:02 PM
May God bless his soul
John Erlich - 5-26-2006 at 12:19 PM
I had quite some trouble finding biographical specifics on Hamza, but one site (i-cias.com/e.o/hamzad.htm) reports that he was born in 1929 in Wadi
Halfa, Sudan. That would make him about 77 years old at the time of his passing. Just thought folks might be interested to know...
Peace,
John
Greg - 5-26-2006 at 01:31 PM
Thanks John, I had been searching, without success, for his birthdate.
It's so sad when such a great mentor "goes ahead."
May God rest his soul and reward him for the great musical legacy he has left to those of us who remain behind.
Greg
Gabriel - 5-26-2006 at 10:03 PM
it is realy hard to say anything,
this is very sad news,
he was the first oud player that got me playing, i still remember listening to him for the first time
it was his first album he did "music of Nubia".
why dont we arange some music by him or some other tribute??
John Erlich - 5-30-2006 at 08:45 AM
Hamza El Din's obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Hamza El Din -- Nubian musician who played with Grateful Dead
- Jesse Hamlin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006
Hamza El Din, the celebrated Nubian musician whose rich fusion of Arabic and Nubian sounds entranced audiences worldwide and inspired colleagues like
the Grateful Dead and Kronos Quartet, died Monday at a Berkeley hospital from a gallbladder infection. He was 76.
A longtime Oakland resident, Mr. El Din was a subtle master of the oud, the Arabic precursor of the lute, and the tar, the single-skinned drum that
originated in Nubia, the ancient upper Nile land that was largely submerged after the Aswan Dam was built in the 1960s. Mr. El Din sought to preserve
his native culture, singing Nubian songs and stories in a warm, reedy voice that merged with his instrumental overtones to create music of quiet
intensity and beauty.
"It was mesmerizing. Hypnotic and trancelike,'' said Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. "Hamza taught me about the romancing of the drum. His music
was very subtle and multilayered.
"He was a deep listener,'' added Hart, who practiced daily for six years to master the tar Mr. El Din gave him. Sometimes the music they played
together was so soft "we could hardly hear ourselves. He'd just suck you into this vortex, and all of a sudden what was quiet seemed loud in its
intensity. He suspended time.''
Mr. El Din, who created music for "The Black Stallion" and other films, first played with the Dead in '78 at Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza and joined
the band a few months later at San Francisco's Winterland with a group of Sufi drummers. He was a serenely joyous man whose glowing black face was
framed by his flowing white garb and headdress.
"He was sweet, gentle soul,'' said Hart, who recalled that night at Winterland when Mr. El Din had the whole crowd clapping the 12-beat rhythm of the
Nubian number "Olin Arageed.'' "If you took the time to visit his sonic universe, he'd welcome you with open arms. It was a joyous experience. Jerry
(Garcia) just loved to play with him.''
So did Joan Jeanrenaud, the cellist who first met Mr. El Din in the 1980s when she was a member of the Kronos Quartet. It was in Tokyo, where he was
living and teaching at the time. He played his signature composition "Escalay: The Water Wheel'' for the group. "It was a heart-touching experience,''
said Jeanrenaud, who played with Mr. El Din many times, as a member of Kronos -- which featured "Escalay'' on its hit 1992 recording "Pieces of
Africa'' -- on Mr. El Din's discs and on her own.
"He put himself into the music so completely that when he played, it would take you away to another place. You went on a journey to this very
peaceful, emotional, beautiful place. He was a mentor to many of us.''
Born in Toskha, Nubia, in Egypt, Mr. El Din began playing oud while studying engineering at the University of Cairo. He also studied at the King Fouad
Institute of Middle Eastern Music. Learning of plans to build the Aswan Dam, he quit his engineering job in Cairo and set off to preserve Nubian music
before the people were dispersed. With his oud, an instrument unknown in Nubia, he traveled from village to village by donkey, gathering songs. He was
playing in traditional Arabic style; it wasn't until his music acquired a distinctly Nubian flavor that it caught on.
"One day I felt the oud had a Nubian accent,'' Mr. El Din told The Chronicle in 1995. "I played for people in my village and they were mesmerized. I
knew I had something.''
He had studied Western music at the Academy of Santa Celia in Rome, expanding his sense of harmony and musical form. After moving to the United
States, he taught at various universities and then settled in the Bay Area. At Mills College, he met the esteemed composer Terry Riley, who learned
something about understatement from a comment Mr. El Din made to him about singing softly.
"Through very simple means, Hamza could create a spell on an audience. His music spoke directly to the heart,'' said Riley, whose groundbreaking
minimalist music has some of the same hypnotic quality. "Audiences leaned in toward his music," he said. "It wasn't in their faces.''
Riley introduced Mr. El Din to Kronos. "He opened doors for a lot of people, doors between different forms of music,'' said Kronos violinist and
founder David Harrington. "We lost a great musician and a great man.''
Mr. El Din is survived by his wife, Nabra, of Oakland. A musical tribute is pending.
DJdog - 5-30-2006 at 08:54 AM
I live in San Francisco. If you hear when a tribute is planned, I would greatly appreciate finding out about it. Steve Bayne(MRBAYNE@sbcglobal.net).
John Erlich - 5-30-2006 at 10:49 AM
Hi Steve,
As soon as I hear anything about a public event for Hamza, I will post it.
Peace,
John
John Erlich - 5-31-2006 at 10:05 AM
L.A. Time Obituary for Hama (slightly different info, especially birthplace!):
From the Los Angeles Times
OBITUARIES
Hamza El Din, 76; Musician Popularized North Africa's Ancient Traditional Songs
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
May 30, 2006
Hamza El Din, considered the father of Nubian music who helped expose the sounds of his North African homeland to a worldwide audience, has died. He
was 76.
El Din died May 22 at a hospital in Berkeley of complications from a gallbladder infection.
A composer and master of the oud, El Din became known to American audiences in the mid-1960s when he performed at the Newport Folk Festival and
recorded two albums for the Vanguard label.
His music drew the attention of such musicians as folk singer Joan Baez, the classical Kronos Quartet and the rock band the Grateful Dead. He
collaborated with the Kronos Quartet on the album "Pieces of Africa," and played with the Grateful Dead during its show at the Great Pyramids at Giza
in 1978.
Other collaborations followed, including one with director Peter Sellars for a version of the Aeschylus play "The Persians" at the Salzburg Festival.
Hamza's compositions also were performed by several ballet companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet and San Francisco Ballet.
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart called El Din's music "mesmerizing, hypnotic and trance-like."
"Hamza taught me about the romancing of the drum," Hart told the San Francisco Chronicle. "His music was very subtle and multilayered."
El Din, who taught ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, Ohio University and University of Texas, lived for a time in Japan to study the
biwa, a Japanese lute.
Born in 1929 in the former Nubian town of Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan, El Din was an electrical engineering student at what is now the University of
Cairo when he took up the oud, an instrument similar to the lute, and the tar, a single-skinned frame drum from the Upper Nile.
At the news that his homeland would be part of the area to be flooded by Lake Nasser on the completion of the Aswan High Dam, El Din quit his
engineering studies and traveled the region by donkey to warn his people of the dislocation that would come about from the dam project.
He also acquired material for many of his songs. He wrote about love, childhood memories, a wedding and the water wheel in his home village.
By playing the oud, not a traditional Nubian instrument, he found ways to expand the boundaries of his native music.
He returned to Cairo to study Arabic music and later studied classical guitar and Western music in Rome at the Academy of Santa Cecilia.
Since the late 1960s, he has lived much of the time in the Bay Area and toured extensively. He offered quietly intense solo concerts and appeared at
major festivals throughout the world. He performed dressed in white robes and wore a white turban.
Critics say his most significant recordings were "Escalay: The Water Wheel," released in 1971, and "Eclipse," a 1982 release. His most recent album,
"A Wish," was released in 1999.
El Din's survivors include his wife, Nadra.
Jameel - 6-6-2006 at 05:14 PM
I thought I would let a little time pass before I mentioned this, out of respect for Hamza and any of you who may be acquainted with him.
I'm concerned about the status of Hamza's Abdo Nahat oud. I would hate to see this incredible piece of history and art disappear into some closet or
dignitary's basement, so to speak. It should really be documented with measurements and some professional photographs. If there is anyone here that is
in a postion to pursue this, please contact me.
Hosam - 6-6-2006 at 06:48 PM
While I am still thinking it is a little too early for this, I am sure that Mr. Hamza eldin may God rest his soul has left instructions what to do
with this timeless piece. By the way he used to take care of this oud, I can tell that collecting dust (again!) will not be the end of this unique
piece of art.
I would certainly love to see more detailed pictures and accurate measurements taken and published for this museum-quality oud. I have been preparing
for more than six month now for my first oud project which will be based on this oud. Thank you Jameel for your help during this phase.