El Amal (Chicago): Ray'on Meyer, Josh, Joe Spilberg, George Lawler, Ronnie Malley, Bilal Malley, Dan Nicky, Yves Francois, Misun Kim
El Amal (East): The group is still under development. If you are interested in intensive rhythm & technique training, & future events & show, please contact us
Influences
The Tunisian heritage, our musical forefathers/mothers, & the Great Almighty
Sounds Like
You gotta see it to believe it!! Najib has a traditional sound, but he also plays across all ethnic cultures
Najib started playing darbouka at age 8. At age 16, he attended the Tunisian Conservatory of music. He later moved to Paris. While finishing his studies in Paris, he worked in Arabic night clubs and expanded his rhythm repertoire. Throughout his career, he has accompanied various artists in the Arab world such as Tunisian maestro AbdelHamid al Haljia, Tunisian oud player & director of Tunisian RadioTV Ali Sriti, Sheherazade, Choukoukou, Raja Yusef, Aboud Abdel Al, Wadi Al Safi, George Yazbek, and Latifa Arfaoui.
Najib came to the States in 1982 & has since worked in California, Detroit, Chicago, and Canada. He had the oppurtunity to play in Isreal(Palastine) as part of the Issa Boulos Quartet in 1998. Recently, he had an interview on DandanaTV and performed with Cheb Yassin at the Tunisian National Day Feast in NYC. Aside from traditional Arabic music, has performed with the Newberry Library Renaissance music/ Silk Road series, Afghani concerts/weddings, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
While in Chicago, he taught several American & Arabic students and, in 2001, formed the musical group, El Amal (the Hope). The term "hope" reflects Najib's confidence in passing his musical knowledge & talents to his students (non-Arabic & Arabic). Najib & El Amal has performed in the Midwest such as ArabFest (Milwaukee, WI) and also Rakkasah Festival East (Somerset, NJ). Some of his past students include Susu Pampanin (Califormia), Ray'on Meyer (Chicago, Doum Sound), & Bassem Yazbek (Lebanon).
Najib is one of the remaing percussionists who plays with a natural stingray fishskin head darbouka or tambourine because of the instrument's earthy sound quality, compared to the modern synthetic instruments, which have a plastic head and a higher pitched sound. He also plays other percussion instruments (bongos, congas, framedrum, N. African castenents (Eshkashach), finger cymbals, drum set, high hat, etc), the keyboard, and the N. African bass (haaj hoosh).
He currently teaches rhythm and dance workshops with his wife, Tipsuda, and performs throughout the States & in Europe. He is available for workshops, performances, festival, and collaborations in all music, dance, and movie genres.
salam alikoum Najib (and Tipsuda), I hope all is well and that you keep up the beautiful work on your music, you are an inspiration to my life (and, along with Franz Jackson a great influence on my growth as a musician and a person), and my mother says bonjour, merci beaucoup , Yves Francois
