A versatile and famously hard-working performer, arranger, composer
and entrepreneur, he became the go-to player for a wide array of
international musicians keen to introduce a North African or Middle
Eastern edge to their music, working with everyone from jazz and North
African musicians to rock stars, including https://www.theguardian.com/music/peter-gabriel" rel="nofollow - Peter Gabriel , Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
He wrote and played on film soundtracks, released albums of Egyptian
dance music and ran a dance school. He may not have been a household
name, but his music was heard by millions.
Born in the fashionable Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, he came
from a successful family. His father, Abbas Ibrahim Hassan, was an
entomologist, while his mother Omayma Ramzy was a fine pianist and
player of http://go.theguardian.com/?id=114047X1572903&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quora.com%2FWhat-is-the-difference-between-a-lute-and-an-oud&sref=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/23/hossam-ramzy-obituary" rel="nofollow - the oud, the predecessor of the lute . Hossam was given his first instrument – an http://go.theguardian.com/?id=114047X1572903&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shutterstock.com%2Fsearch%2Fgoblet%2Bdrum&sref=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/23/hossam-ramzy-obituary" rel="nofollow - Egyptian tabla ,
or goblet-shaped hand drum – at the age of three, and became fascinated
by percussion. Encouraged by his mother, he learned to accompany her
performances and went on to study western drum styles and the piano
while at junior school.
When he was a teenager his father moved to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia,
to work, and there Hossam studied with local composers and learned new
rhythms from the Bedouin musicians he visited in the desert.
Returning to Egypt in the early 1970s he worked as a drummer in the
Cairo clubs. Despite the wishes of his father, who did not want him to
become a musician, he moved to Britain in 1975, and began playing drums
for such rising jazz players as the saxophonist https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/16/andy-sheppard-quartet-surrounded-by-sea-review" rel="nofollow - Andy Sheppard .
He also played with what was then the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, ran
his own jazz/funk group and worked as a cook (he was an excellent one)
in London restaurants.
In 1980 he dramatically changed his musical direction. A friend
invited him to an Arabic club in London, where an Egyptian band were
playing and he was reintroduced to the music he had heard as a child. It
was, he said “a night of transformation for me. I never thought that
from Egyptian drums there could be such a marvellous sound.”
He went back to Cairo, bought tabla drums, and came back to London to
start practising, using techniques he had learned as a jazz musician to
develop his own style. Instead of using sticks and a drum kit, he was
now drumming with his fingers on a clay pot with a fish skin head.
Ramzy quickly established a new musical reputation, working in
nightclubs and providing the backing for Egyptian and British dancers.
He held workshops for dancers interested in Egyptian styles, and it was
for this market that he recorded his first album, Introduction to
Egyptian https://www.theguardian.com/stage/dance" rel="nofollow - Dance Rhythms.
The timing was perfect. The 80s saw the start of the so-called “world
music” scene. British audiences were taking a growing interest in
global sounds and rhythms – and so too were British pop stars.
Hossam’s breakthrough came when Gabriel heard his album and invited him to play on his soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s film https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/10/the-last-temptation-of-christ-scorcese-30th-anniversary" rel="nofollow - The Last Temptation of Christ , which was released as a Peter Gabriel album, Passion, in 1989. It included such global celebrities as https://www.theguardian.com/music/youssou-n-dour" rel="nofollow - Youssou N’Dour and https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/16/nusrat-fateh-ali-khan-musstt-musstt" rel="nofollow - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan , and Ramzy can be heard on five tracks, including the opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1ysAt2PMQ" rel="nofollow - The Feeling Begins , playing tabla, finger cymbals and other percussion.
In the same year he also appeared on Passion Sources, an album of
music that inspired Gabriel’s writing. He continued to work with Gabriel
on a series of projects, including the album Us (1992). Gabriel
described him as a “great musician and good friend … a soulful
percussionist who was a great champion for many musicians from his part
of the world”.
Ramzy’s second major breakthrough came in 1994 when he was invited by the https://www.theguardian.com/music/ledzeppelin" rel="nofollow - Led Zeppelin stars https://www.theguardian.com/music/robert-plant" rel="nofollow - Robert Plant and https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/08/stairway-to-heaven-jimmy-page-castle-is-his-home-led-zeppelin" rel="nofollow - Jimmy Page
to assemble a band of Arabian string players and percussionists to work
on their live reunion album No Quarter – Unledded. It was a bestseller,
certified triple platinum, and Ramzy went on to accompany them on their
1995-96 world tour.
But he was not only interested in accompanying western stars. In
September 1998 he was lead percussionist and director of the Egyptian
orchestra flown in to accompany three major Algerian singers, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/sep/13/rachid-taha-obituary" rel="nofollow - Rachid Taha , https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/aug/25/popandrock" rel="nofollow - Khaled
and Faudel at the 1, 2, 3 Soleils concert at the Bercy stadium in
Paris. The event led to a bestselling live double album, and was,
according to Taha, the first concert of North African rai music to be given serious coverage in the French media.
As a percussionist or arranger, Ramzy worked with an astonishing number of different musicians, from jazz players including http://chickcorea.com/" rel="nofollow - Chick Corea to the Rolling Stones, Shakira, https://www.natachaatlasofficial.com/" rel="nofollow - Natacha Atlas and Sting. His film soundtrack work ranged from Stargate to The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
His own albums included the ambitious global fusion set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHd2NyQ4TM" rel="nofollow - Rock the Tabla
(2011), which included guests from across the world including the
Bollywood keyboard player and composer AR Rahman, and the veteran
jazz-fusion drummer Billy Cobham. It was nominated for a Songlines award
the following year.
His final projects included percussion work for the American blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa on his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz5vpT_BcMM" rel="nofollow - Live at Carnegie Hall
acoustic album (released 2017) and for the Canadian composer and
multi-instrumentalist Loreena McKennitt at the Albert Hall in London
earlier this year.
As a dance enthusiast, Hossam ran the Drumzy School of Music &
Dance in East Grinstead, West Sussex, teaching “belly dancing and
Egyptian rhythm and music”. He loved horses and was an excellent rider
and semi-professional show jumper.
Married three times, he was separated from his third wife, Serena. He
is survived by his three children, Louvaine, Omayma and Amir.
• Hossam Ramzy, percussionist, arranger and composer, born 15 December 1953; died 10 September 2019
from www.theguardian.com