In university, Ammar Dejani and his soon-to-be partner Akram El Sherif would play music gigs around Cairo. Studying journalism at the American University in Cairo and starting a career in advertising and public relations, no one could’ve guessed that Dejani, alongside his brother-in-tunes, would soon cofound one of Cairo’s hippest live music venues. The idea started with what every musician hopes to achieve — finding a way to make a living from his music.

“We realized that if you want to become professional musicians and make your own music, Cairo and the Arab world are limited in what you can do,” says Dejani.

But to make a decent living playing music, the best option was to join the ranks of an established record label. The problem, from Dejani’s perspective, was the possibility his creativity would be stifled.

“You’re stuck playing music on somebody else’s album,” he says. “They’re using your skill and not your talent.”

But the issue ran deeper than just that. Egypt’s music recording industry, like much of the rest of the world, is all about pop music. And in Egypt and other Arab countries that means single male or female artists, with little if any credit given to musicians that help bring the music to life.

“Nobody talks about the musicians, nobody gives a second thought to who’s playing that guitar or who’s that drummer,” says Dejani. “The musicians are not household names, the singers are. That’s the nature of pop.”

It was this lack of opportunity that drove Dejani and his partners to create a venue for musicians to play their own music and get paid for it too. With this in mind, the Cairo Jazz Club was born, sparking the country’s independent music scene in Egypt.

The birth of a scene
The Cairo Jazz Club was originally founded in 1997 by a man named Nisha, who is said to be the founding father of Cairo’s nightlife.

“He had an idea for a venue with live music, but although he had great experience in hospitality, he knew little about bands or how to deal with them,” says Dejani.

And this is when Dejani, El Sherif and their third partner Alexander Rizk came into the picture.

“We took over the place in 2001 and it was great because it had a name that relates to music.”

According to Dejani, their business model and vision were simple — a commercial operation that would help nurture cultural objectives and foster an independent music scene.

“It’s simple economics,” he says. “If you want to incubate an independent music scene, there [needs] to be a supply and demand.”

The Cairo Jazz Club provided the space for musicians to perform and audiences to be entertained. The absence of a space for musicians to perform and grow was symptomatic of the lack of venues that featured live music.

 “There were really no bands at the time and definitely no independent music scene,” Dejani says. “It all started coming together in the Jazz Club. Musicians finally had a venue that allowed them to play their music and paid them [for it].”

When the club first opened, it only offered one live night a week on Thursdays. At the time, there were only three bands that rotated every week and two of these three bands were formed while the space was being renovated before the grand opening.

But soon after, the Cairo Jazz Club became more than just a venue. It also played a big role in mentoring bands and sometimes even putting them together.

“We always worked with the bands we got,” Dejani says. “When bands came to audition, it wasn’t just a yes or no; but we worked with them and told them what they need to do [to improve.]”

With two of the partners already musicians, they had a foot on the stage and in the audience.

“We could give the musicians great insight into what is expected and what they need to do to throw a great show.”

Dejani stresses that although he considers the Jazz Club to be the birthplace of independent music in Egypt, the scene would have eventually taken off somewhere. “Cairo is the recording capital of the Middle East. There are a lot of excellent musicians and that’s why the industry works here,” he says. “We were just in the right time at the right place.”

The club has also become a prominent showcase for disc jockeys.

Branching out
The rise of the independent music scene and the growing number of bands drove demand for acts like this playing outside of the club at events such as weddings, private parties, corporate receptions, as well as other venues across the country. People started to contact the Jazz Club founders, hoping they could act as the middlemen in arranging musical entertainment for their events.

“Because the scene was still a baby and people were only seeing those bands at the Jazz Club, naturally anyone who wanted a band would contact us,” says Dejani.

And according to him, a lot of these places, especially tourist resorts, were already bringing in bands and musicians from abroad and paying international rates. Since they were already providing talent for shows, Dejani and his partners recently formed the Cairo Jazz Club Agency to help link these same bands with individuals or corporations seeking local talents.

“We had the luxury of being immersed in the scene and we knew all the bands. They are our friends as well as our clients. […] So we were being approached a lot and we started facilitating those bands playing at those events. We were acting as de facto agents anyway.”

Dejani explains that with the rise of any scene, there will be a rise in complementary services. “[We] being agents is just part of the scene’s growth. All we did [was] just formalize it as a service, before that it was just a satellite activity,” he says.

But he prefers to look at the management aspect within the context of his original vision of nurturing the independent music scene instead of as a separate entity from the club.

“It made sense and was true to our vision to try and get those bands as much business as possible. [….] If I [as a musician] am making money out of my own music, then I don’t need to go do something else,” he explains.

The Cairo Jazz Club Agency doesn’t just function as an ordinary booking agent. Instead, it provides tailor-made services designed to suit the needs of each event. In certain cases, the agency assembles bands to cater to specific needs. As Dejani puts it: “We cater to mood.”

A good example is the Azza Fahmy fashion show held in Manial’s El Menesterly Palace. The fashion show was the first of its kind here, combining live music choreographed to the models’ runway walks.

“We put together a modern takht (traditional oriental musical ensemble), so there were instruments from the takht as well as modern instruments like a piano, bass and lots of percussion to keep the rhythm for the models,” Dejani says.

And since good business requires a degree of flexibility, the jazz partners decided to expand their agency beyond just booking bands to organizing full events. Dejani says the idea was rooted in the need for bigger profit margins. “Being an agent and having a low profit margin, we need to have our own events so that we can be competitive.”

One of their most recent events was Art Beat held in October of 2010, which was organized in cooperation with Darb 1718. (The Cairo Jazz Club Agency handled the music, while Darb 1718 took care of the art.)

The agency is hoping Art Beat will become an annual event and help it support its less profitable booking operation.

“If we can have profitable events, it will allow us to focus on the talents we have and actually spend on them, because part of our role is to help those bands market themselves,” says Dejani.

Around the bend
The Jazz Club branching out was part of the scene maturing, Dejani explains.

“Ten years ago, there was no scene, there weren’t even bands,” he says. “We started with three […] and now 10 years later we work with about 30 bands, and there are many more out there.”

But creating a scene is one thing; creating a sustainable industry full of popular mainstream bands with large fan bases is something else altogether. Dejani says that he hopes the music scene’s dynamic nature over the past decade will continue to drive the industry’s potential for growth.

“I’ve been using the words ‘independent music scene’ because at some point, it was just underground. [We] started with no scene, just random efforts, and then these efforts [found] a space like the Jazz Club and they anchored to it. At that point, it’s all still underground catering to a certain niche. But as people become more aware and demand this type of entertainment, it moves over ground and eventually grows into a scene.”

According to Dejani, from this point on, one of two things can happen: either the existing recording industry absorbs this scene or new independent labels emerge. There are some efforts to make the first option a reality. Dejani points to the example of Hani Adel from Wust El Balad, who has recently signed as an independent artist by a well-known label.

And while the second option could be a good alternative, Dejani has some reservations about its success down the road.

“Given the state of the music industry in general, the existing record labels are already struggling,” he says. “With downloadable music becoming readily available, demand for CDs is shrinking fast. On the other hand, people will always have to pay a ticket to see a live show.”

And it’s not just the industry’s bottom line that Dejani is wary of — it’s about losing the intrinsic passion of independent artists. “Me personally, I believe in the live show. [….] The problem is that the recording industry has taken the emphasis away from the performance and put it into the studio.”

During the 1980s, technology became so cheap it triggered a reversal in the industry. “There was a time when the record was advertising for the live show, now it’s the show that’s advertising for the record, and to me that’s bull […].”

There is also a lot of fun in producing a live show, setting the stage, getting the band and seeing the interaction with the audience. For Dejani, oftentimes this is an intense experience.

“In live shows, when there is a click between the band and the audience, you can almost see the energy, and no CD can replicate that.”
With such a strong passion for the music scene, the next move for Dejani could very well be increasing the number of venues. But he explains that live music is a very difficult business to be in.

For the time being, Dejani wants to focus on nurturing and growing the scene. “The aim is to have enough volume that provides the funds to help incubate young musicians and bands that really need the support.” bt