Strut present the 1973 Egyptian jazz classic, 'Egypt Strut' by Salah Ragaband Cairo Jazz Band. Inspired by a concert in Cairo by Randy Weston in 1967 encouraging Pan-African unity, drummer Ragab, Eduard "Edu" Vizvari, a Czech jazzmusician, and Hartmut Geerken of Goethe Institut vowed to create Egypt'sfirst jazz big band. Following the Arab-Israeli war, Ragab became a Majorin the Egyptian army and had unparalleled access to the military's 3000musicians spanning Upper and Lower Egypt, along with a wide range ofinstruments. Part of the barracks were christened the Jazz House and,following a crash course in jazz history by Geerken, the Cairo Jazz Bandwas born, playing their first concert at Ewart Memorial Hall at the AmericanUniversity in 1969. Further inspired by Sun Ra & His Arkestra's first visit toEgypt in 1971, Ragab recorded an album for the Egyptian Ministry OfCulture a year later, entitled 'Egyptian Jazz', later released as 'Egypt Strut',a perfect fusion of jazz with Arabic modes with tracks referencing Islamicfestivals, Egyptian landmarks and friends and family dear to Ragab. TheWire's Francis Gooding summarises the album as "esoteric AfricanAmerican Egyptianism and radically spiritualised modal jazz taken up byRagab as the tool for a form of mystical Egyptian nationalism - atriumphalist military jazz, angled in Ra-like fashion towards the Gods of theNew Kingdom."
