Ali Hassan Kuban

"I perform because I love art. I love entertaining people. As long as you're going straight, what's there to fear?"
Ali Hassan Kuban

Ali Hassan Kuban was born in 1933, in Gotha, Egypt, a small village in the heart of Nubia near Aswan.. At the age of seven his family moved to Cairo where, in the Nubian Boy Scouts, he learnt to play the clarinet and the tar (bagpipes). In 1949 he performed as a clarinettist at the Opera of Cairo and started playing in Nubian wedding bands before forming his own eight-piece group, the first Nubian band to feature a brass section alongside traditional instruments.

Kuban began to add other outside influences: electric instruments, the rhythms of Cuba and James Brown. This potent mix made him a star, his fame spreading beyond the Nubian communities, selling millions of cassettes. In the 90's Kuban made several recordings for the international market and toured outside of Egypt. In Cairo he operated up to seven different bands and employed over 60 musicians. It is said that no Nubian wedding party was complete without an appearance by Kuban.
Ali Hassan Kuban died in June 2001 in Cairo just after the release of his last album "Real Nubian" on PIRANHA Musik.

Press Quotes

"Ali Hassan Kuban has marched on through the reign of King Farouk, the social upheaval and turbulence of the sixties, the flood of requests for the genre of music he was pioneering in the seventies. He is finally confident of his place in history."
Al-Ahram, Cairo

"Ali Hassan Kuban and his Nubian band have successfully transplanted the complicated rural rhythms and chants of ancient Nubia into the metropolitan culture of the Egyptian capital without loosing their Nubian roots."
Borkowsky Akbar

"The Godfather of Nubian roots Music is the voice of Nubia..."
Jazzthetik

"The original urban sound of Nubia came about through the music of Ali Hassan Cuban who tells a story of overhearing a jazz band in a Cairo nightclub, and deciding at once to add brass to his then-folk based music. Kuban's unique music has taken him to many European tours."
Rough Guide of World Music

"Kuban is [...] kicking serious butt, with a funky bass player and horn charts that sound like an Arabic version of the Famous Flames."
World Music Hound