Salah Ragab

Salah Ragab (Arabic: صلاح رجب) was an Egyptian drummer.

Salah Ragab
BornEgypt
DiedJuly 2008
Egypt
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsDrums
Years active1960s–1980s
Associated actsSun Ra

Career

While serving as a major in the Egyptian army, Ragab tried to form a jazz band with American saxophonist Mac X. Spears in the early 1960s, but Spears left the country soon after its inception.[1] At a concert by Randy Sexton, Ragab befriended Hartmut Geerken and Eduard Vizvari, and they started the Cairo Jazz Band.[1] In his work for the military's department of music[2] Ragab selected musicians to join the big band and taught them jazz.[1] The Cairo Jazz Band performed for the first time at American University in 1969, performing original works in addition to music by Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, then in Alexandria and Cairo.[1] The band recorded in the early 1970s. Geerken invited Sun Ra, who made a few visits to Egypt.[1] Ragab performed with Ra in 1971 and 1983.[2] Ra recorded two of Ragab's songs: "Dawn" and "Egypt Strut".[1] Ragab also briefly with the German band Embryo.[1]

Discography

As leader
  • Egyptian Jazz (Art Yard, 2006)

As sideman
  • Embryo, La Blama Sparozzi (Schneeball, 1982)
  • Sun Ra, In Egypt (Praxis, 1983)

References
  1. Layne, Joslyn. "Salah Ragab". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  2. Szwed, John (1997). Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. Payback. pp. 292–294, 355. ISBN 0-86241-722-8.
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