Hailing from Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Noori & His Dorpa Band perform music reflected in the current state of the revolution there. Through their musical successes, the band tries to draw attention to the plight of the people, whose government over many iterations has denied the people the profits of one of the country’s natural resources, gold. The results for the listener are pure magic, as highlighted on Saagama (seen/heard here). This is instrumental music, which by its nature transcends all languages with a universal message: Hear Me.

While searching the dumps of Sudan, Noori came across the neck of a guitar, which is very uncommon in the country. In Sudan, a tambour is a traditional four-string instrument played across the region. Noori received a vintage tambour from the 1970s which his father, a renowned instrumentalist in his own right, gave him.  Noori then combined the two instruments into an electrified mashup by welding and then custom tuning for his own needs. This instrument, combined with rhythm guitar, bass, tenor sax, congas, and tabla (twin hand drums), makes up the total sound of the band. It is rich in the Beja sound, a type of music that Noori first wanted to preserve when he started out at 18. From the melding of the instruments, comes the LP Beja Power! (June 2022) with an amazing sound! You can find out more about the Beja people and culture on this Wikipedia link.

As anyone who follows Vodka might know, I don’t cover a lot of instrumental-only music. There are exceptions, and they seem to be coming more frequently these days. When you hear outstanding music, it doesn’t matter if it’s instrumental-only or not, it needs to be brought from the dark corners into the light. Such is the case with Beja Power!

So how would I describe the music of Noori & His Dorpa Band? It crosses through many, many, genres, but overall I’d have to give the music its own category; Perhaps progressive-jazz-funk-rock. It doesn’t matter, though, what you call the music type, it is an astounding and mesmerizing sound that bears repeated listens. 

There’s no website for the band, but their US distributor, Ostinato Records, has links to most social and streaming sites from their bandcamp.com site, where you can purchase and listen to the LP as well.  From these links, you will find as much information as is available for the band. Check them out! Purchase Beja Power! Give support to the truth!

Note: Just when things were returning to a semblance of normality, the COVID 19 virus is again heating up in many areas of the country. It’s so disheartening to know that we have the tools to make this a non-event, by simply getting vaccinated and fully boosted. The virus has the potential, again, to shut down performances for musical artists. For this reason, artists such as Noori & His Dorpa Band could still use your purchases. If your situation allows it, consider purchasing more in these tough times.  Please, if you are physically able to do so, get vaccinated. — Vodka