Hossam Ramzy is an Egyptian percussionist and composer. He has worked with Western artists like Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

 and Robert Plant

Robert Plant

Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

 as well as with Arabic music artists like Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha is an Algerian singer and activist based in France who has been described as "sonically adventurous." His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, electronic, punk and raï.-Early life:Taha was born in 1958 in Sig , Algeria, although a second source suggests he was...

 and Khaled

Khaled (musician)

Khaled Hadj Ibrahim , better known as Khaled, is a raï singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Sidi El Houari in Oran Province of Algeria...

.

Early life and career

Ramzy was born into a wealthy Cairo family. He began playing the darbuka

Goblet drum

The goblet drum is a hand drum with a goblet shape used mostly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe....

 and tabla at an early age. He moved to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 for a time and learned traditional Bedouin

Bedouin

The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

 music styles. In the 1970s he moved to London and began playing with saxophonist Andy Sheppard

Andy Sheppard

Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.-Biography:Sheppard was born in Warminster,...

. His collaborations with jazz musicians earned him the nickname "The Sultan of Swing". In 1989 he worked with Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

 on the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

's The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1953. It was first published in English in 1960. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective...

. This brought him to the attention of artists such as Frank Asher and the Gipsy Kings

Gipsy Kings

The Gipsy Kings are a group of musicians from Arles and Montpellier, who perform in Spanish with an Andalucían accent. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Spanish Romani people who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. Chico Bouchikhi is of...

.

In 1994 he returned to his roots and formed a ten piece Egyptian ensemble that performed on the album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded

No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded

No Quarter is a live album by Page and Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released by Atlantic Records on 14 October 1994. The long awaited reunion between Page and Plant occurred on a 90 minute "UnLedded" MTV project, recorded in Morocco, Wales, and London, which rated...

. Ramzy and his ensemble also gained exposure by touring with Plant and Page throughout 1995 in support of their album. The next year Ramzy released the first of three collaborations with English arranger Phil Thornton, Eternal Egypt. The success of Eternal Egypts blend of Arabic music prompted the follow up albums Immortal Egypt and Enchanted Egypt. In 1998, he performed with Rachid Taha, Khaled and Faudel

Faudel

Faudel , born Faudel Belloua on June 6, 1978 in Mantes-la-Jolie, is a French singer of Algerian descent.-Early years:...

 at their 1,2,3 Soleils

1,2,3 Soleils

-External links:*...

 concert and backed Khaled again for the Claude Challe

Claude Challe

Claude Challe is a French DJ and club owner, the creator of the Buddha Bar restaurant/clubs and music compilations.Challe moved to France at age three. He attended Rabbinical school as a young man...

 album Flying Carpet.

In 2000, Jay-Z

Jay-Z

Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...

 sampled his version of "Khosara" for "Big Pimpin'

Big Pimpin'

"Big Pimpin" is the last single from rapper Jay-Z's fourth album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter. It features rapping by Southern hip hop group UGK as well as production by Timbaland....

". After 2000 Ramzy increasingly began to work arranging music for pop stars. In 2005 he arranged some songs for Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin

Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...

's album Life

Life (Ricky Martin album)

Life is the eighth album by Ricky Martin. It was released on October 10, 2005 in Europe, October 11, 2005 in the US and October 19, 2005 in Japan.-Background and development:...

 and he worked with Shakira

Shakira

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...

 on her album She Wolf

She Wolf (album)

She Wolf is the sixth studio album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, first released on October 9, 2009 through Epic Records and Sony Music Latin. The album sees Shakira shift from Latin pop and pop rock to electropop while also exploring dancehall...

. He also contributed two songs to the soundtrack for the film Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (film)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 sword-and-sorcery action film written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard; directed by Mike Newell; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer; and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures...

 and one to the soundtrack for Conan The Barbarian.

His latest album released on 30 August 2011. Entitled Rock the Tabla, it features Indian composer A.R. Rahman, Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Ömer Faruk Tekbilek , also known as Omar Faruk Tekbilek, is a Turkish flautist. He is known for his performances with the ney in a Sufi style...

, Manu Katché

Manu Katché

Manu Katché is a French musician of Ivorian origin, born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on 27 October 1958. He is a drummer and songwriter.-Career:Session musician...

 and Billy Cobham

Billy Cobham

William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....

.

Personal life

Ramzy lives in London and Cairo with his wife, Brazilian belly dancer Serena. He made a cameo appearance in the 1993 film Son of the Pink Panther

Son of the Pink Panther

Son of the Pink Panther is the ninth entry in the 30-year-old The Pink Panther film series. Directed by Blake Edwards, it stars Roberto Benigni as Inspector Clouseau's illegitimate son. Also in this film are Panther regulars Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk and Graham Stark and a star of the original 1963...

.

Selected discography

• 1989 - Passion
• 1994 - No Quarter
  No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded
  No Quarter is a live album by Page and Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released by Atlantic Records on 14 October 1994. The long awaited reunion between Page and Plant occurred on a 90 minute "UnLedded" MTV project, recorded in Morocco, Wales, and London, which rated...
  
  
• 1994 - Best of Farid Al Atrash
• 1994 - Best of Abdul Halim Hafiz
• 1994 - Baladi Plus
• 1994 - Sultaan
• 1995 - Source of Fire
• 1996 - Modern Egyptian Belly Dance
• 1996 - Eternal Egypt
• 1997 - Best of Hossam Ramzy
• 1998 - Rhythms of the Nile
• 1998 - Immortal Egypt
• 2000 - Amar
• 2000 - Sabla Tolo — Journeys into Pure Egyptian Percussion
• 2002 - Faddah
• 2002 - Qanun El Tarab
• 2003 - Flamenco Arabe
• 2003 - Hossam Ramzy Presents Egyptian Sufi Sheikh Mohamed Al Helbawy
• 2004 - Enchanted Egypt
• 2007 - Bedouin Tribal Dance
• 2007 - Secrets of the Eye
• 2007 - Sabla Tolo II
• 2008 - Sabla Tolo III
• 2009 - Ruby
• 2011 - Rock the Tabla

External links

• Hossam Ramzy at the IMDB