Given the ongoing popularity of bellydancing in Japan, the signature sound of the Egyptian darbuka drum, has become far more familiar. While it may not have the ubiquitous hippie drum-circle presence of the djembe, this smaller-but-brash hand drum has developed quite a following of its own. Local groups such as Tabla Kwaiesa, led by Tom Ueda, have popularized the explosive, playful side of Egyptian drumming, and they've been successful enough to merit a studio in Shibuya, El Salaam, offering lessons and imported drums for sale.
But when it comes to darbuka, there is one musician who literally every bellydancer or percussionist knows: Hossam Ramzy. (Ueda refers to him as "the textbook.") Born in Cairo, but now based in Britain, Ramzy has released more than 30 albums of his own music, while enjoying a successful career as a session musician to the stars, working with the likes of Shakira, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page ("Unledded"), Jay-Z, Killing Joke and many more.
"I love the sound of skin stretched on a frame," Ramzy tells The Japan Times. "Every drum has a unique and personal character that attracts me to touching it and interacting with it any way I can." Ramzy, who also plays the daf (frame drum) and rek (Egyptian tambourine) as well as plain old drum kit, fell into music from an early age. For that he credits his mother, a singer and pianist who gave him his first drum when he was 3 years old.