Lebleba | Halli Galli (Sono Cairo, 1966)

 

The great label Dust-to-Digital posted to their Substack today a roundup of Armenian women artists, including Lebleba, an Egyptian actress of Armenian heritage whose name triggered a memory in us. Didn't we have a single by this person?

Yes, dear reader; yes, we did. We did and do.

Lebleba's sparse Discogs entry includes two cassettes and five 45s, the earliest of which we pulled from our shelves and ripped after reading Dust-to-Digital's terrific posting. 

Born Ninochka Manoug Kupelian in Cairo in 1945, Lebleba's stage name was memorable to us because it reminded us of a character with a similar name from Arrested Development. We hadn't, we realized, actually listened to the record yet.

Wow. Wow, wow, wowee, wow, wow-wow-wow. This thing is fire. It's got an incredible frantic shuffle rhythm, terrific use of clarinet, which you don't hear often in Arabic-world recordings, and VERY prominent finger cymbals. Lebleba's voice is a unique blend of boogie-woogie-era Misora Hibari and Betty Boop. 

The cover at top of this post has nothing to do with Lebleba; it's a generic Sono Cairo picture cover we've got on at least a dozen other singles in our collection. But, given the finger cymbal connection (did whomever sleeved originally do so intentionally?), we felt it was worth sharing here.

(Listen to "Halli Galli")