Hamza el Din - Music of Nubia

Recorded in 1964

Following his appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, he recorded two albums for Vanguard Records, released 1964–65. His 1971 recording Escalay: The Water Wheel, published by Nonesuch Records and produced by Mickey Hart, has been recognized as one of the first world music recordings to gain wide release in the West, and was claimed as an influence by some American minimalist composers, such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, as well as by Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. He also performed with the Grateful Dead, most famously during their Egypt concerts of 1978. In this period, he also mentored a number of musicians, including Sandy Bull and Windham Hill recording artist Scott Cossu. Later, he released albums for Lotus Records and Sounds True. In 1992, he performed with the Kronos Quartet on an arrangement of his piece Escalay on their album Pieces of Africa.

El Din held a number of teaching positions on ethnomusicology in the United States between the 1970s until the 1990s.[4] Some of these included Ohio University, University of Washington, and the University of Texas at Austin. In the 1980s, he moved to Japan to study the biwa in Tokyo.[4] After that, he eventually settled down in Oakland, California. In 1999, he released his last album, A Wish, with Hani Naser.