The Egyptian pop style known as jeel--a youthful update on North Africa's venerable, street-wise shaabi music--has never been so appealingly presented as on this sensational live set by the style's hottest contemporary practitioner. Hakim has a voice to die for, and a band as tight and exhilarating as any in business. The clarity and depth of this recording gives little hint that it was made at a live concert, in Brooklyn in early 2001, as it happens. We get none of the downsides of a live session--no murkiness, glitches, overwrought stage patter, distracting crowd sounds, or mix problems--but all the advantages, mainly a sustained intensity that has to be heard to be believed--strong coffee from start to finish.

This 2-CD set includes a full disc of sizzling shaabi hits from Hakim's ten-year career, and then a second disc with six tunes, and a fascinating 10-minute video of Hakim and band performing before a huge audience in Egypt. First the tunes. Cracking percussion and pumping bass lines underlie everything, but singers, horns, accordion, and two skilled and tasteful keyboard players provide a shifting range of tone colors, evoking hints of orchestral music here, hyperactive funk there, and the sweet angst of modern North Africa's distinctive urban pop throughout. "El Biehsal Da" ("What's Going On") is down and funky. "Yaho" bubbles with restless exuberance. "Matakahodsh Ala Keda" "Don't Get Used to It" opens with a long, arrhythmic vocal passage giving Hakim ample opportunity to stretch out his achingly beautiful tenor voice.

That voice is clear and agile, capable of delivering both spiritual highs and playful pop gambits. This is music of celebration, but it has underlying seriousness and honesty that keeps it from ever sounding shallow.

The video begins and ends with tightly edited montages of Hakim's stage antics--prancing, posing, and eye-popping to excite the crowd. But in the middle, there's a fabulous performance of "Esma Yalli" ("Listen You") before a thronging public in open air. This clip completes the package beautifully by giving a feeling for the folks who live and breathe this music back in Cairo. At a time when Arabic music faces a difficult market in America, anyone willing to listen will be hard pressed to resist this does of Hakim's brilliantly realized world pop.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org