Jerry Can Band will perform on 21 January at downtown Cairo's Dammah Theatre.

Jerry Can Band was founded by El-Mastaba Centre in 2003, and is comprised of a group of semi nomadic Bedouins from Sinai. Their performance offers music, poetry, singing, storytelling and dancing.

According to El-Mastaba’s website, the group’s songs and poetry “recall the exploits of the ancient Arabian Bedouin tribes through stories from Sinai, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Arabian Gulf, recounting their boundless generosity, fables about trusty camels, warnings of the dastardly deeds of sheep rustlers and tales of unrequited love for the girl with beautiful eyes in the next settlement.”

Their instruments include the Sinai semsemeya (a traditional Egyptian lyre) and the Magroona and the Ney (two kinds of flutes). They also play their music using scraps of army equipment they find in the deserts of Sinai, including ammunition boxes and jerry cans.

The band has played locally as well as internationally, including in England Australia and New Zealand.

An album titled Waqt Qahwa (Coffee Time) is set for release, produced in collaboration with the British company IPS 30.

El-Mastaba Centre promotes artistic creativity through supporting a network of traditional music bands, with a focus on the Bedouin music, the Suez region and its instruments, as well as Sudanese and Egyptian Zar rituals.

Programme:
21 January, 8pm
El-Dammah Theatre, 30A El-Belaasa Street, Abdeen, Downtown Cairo

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