Secrets of the Eye

Arc Music's best-selling artist Hossam Ramzy ('Ambassador of Rhythm'), noted the world over for his percussion talents, arranging and musical diversity, headlines on Secrets of the Eye, a newly re-issued album of soulful compositions that add up to one truly hot, danceable album.The music, which includes the songs "El Hob Halal", "Asrar el Ein", "Aazab" and "Maalehsh", is powered and carried throughout by the rhythmic drive of Hossam's Egyptian percussion. Each track features a different instrument, including some commonly heard in Western music (trumpet, saxophone and accordion), others somewhat less (oud) and yet others fairly to mostly uncommon, such as the magrouna (Egyptian double reed flute). Born in Egypt where his musical career started early, he then moved first to Saudi Arabia, where Bedouin influences became the inspiration for many of his later rhythmic directions, and then on to London in the 1970s, where his work with jazz musicians and, by the 1990s, such renowned figures as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame, among many others, offered him wide exposure and secured his worldwide fame.