82 years Abdel Hamid Abou Feesha - عبد الحميد أبوفيشا ملك العود 82 سنة

ABDEL HAMID ABOU FEESHA:
EGYPT's FORGOTTEN PYRAMID
Born in Shoubra, a suburb of Cairo in Egypt in 1920. Dr. Abdel Hamid Abou Feesha has been playing the oud for close to 80 years and is a local legend, although relatively forgotten in the wider musical community. He claims he has taught the great oud players like Farid el Attrache, Zakaria Ahmad, George Michel, Riyad Al Sunbati and was neighbours with Mohamed Al Qassabji, forming a dear friendship. Great Arabic composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab is said to have had him as a close compositional adviser and you can hear his oud playing and influences on many old Abdel Wahab recordings. He has played with all the greats such as Salih Abdel Hay, Monira Al Mahdiya, Sheikh Sayed Al Safti and even Oum Kalsoum in her early days. An amazing career. Unfortunately, His professional career as an oud virtuoso came to an end after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. He had a very close relationship to King Farouk and he was his personal palace oud player, so after the revolt he was not accepted by his friends and musical peers for being linked to the royal regime. Something he is still coming to terms with.
He is now however, a teaching institution to young up and coming oud players and many visit him for advice, lessons and to listen to him play his old school Egyptian taqasims (modal improvisations) and ofcourse tell stories of the old days...
We were very lucky to visit him, get a brief interview and some samples of his taqasim (improvisations). Despite his age he is still very proficient on the oud, an amazing experience!