Hasan Al-Ajami

A fourth-generation musician, Hasan al-Ajami is among the last masters from the classical music of Sana. A virtuoso in the qanbus (a Southern Yemenite lute with four strings) and an extremely emotional vocalist, al-Ajami was defined by Tower as having “a deeper, even more staccato sound compared to the oud, and his playing is really as rhythmic since it is certainly melodic.” A primary heir to important Yemenite musicians from the ’30s — Salih Abdallah Al Antari and Ahmed “the Mouse” Fayie — al-Ajami is certainly a normal performer on the Sana bazaar, where entrepreneurs gather to chew up the hallucinogenic supplement the qat. For quite some time, al-Ajami continues to be followed by Ahmed Ushaysh, among the last performers schooled in the Yemeni dental custom, and a get good at of sahn mimyeh (copper tambourine).