A Wanderer Artist and a Yafiee Song Legend Rediscovering Yafiee Songs  Through Yahya Omer Al-Yafiee [Archives:1999/10/Culture]

Yafiee type is an original Yemeni traditional art the first classical generation of singers had performed. That was on the first quarter of the 20th century when the artist Yahya Omer Al Yafiee founded this type which were highly appreciated by audience and became well known among other traditional types in Yemen and the Arab Peninsula . The following are some features of this art and its pioneer, the poet Yahya Omer Al Yafiee, famous with the song “Abu Maajeb”.
The poet is considered one of the most ancient artists in the Yemeni contemporary song poets. Living in the 11th Hijri century in India, same as the artist Sultan Bin Herhara, both played a major role in developing and spreading Yemeni and Gulf songs.
His Life
Living a life full of searching and exploring, a continuos travel starting from Yemen heading towards India, Baroda, Kelketa and Haiderabad, that could explain the use of some vocabularies as Ya merkeb Al Hind abu dejlin.
Yafiee songs have special style that reflects the softness of his music and voice, the strength of his words. These factors helped in wide spread Yemeni songs in the Indian Continent and the Arab Gulf. Its quite obvious that there are many similarities in the musical common tradition of Yemen and the Gulf. Original Yemeni music chants us here in Yemen and they have the same influence on those in the Gulf as Aghtenim zamanek and Ya men alal arsh aatelate and many other songs.
His Poems in Songs:
I would like to point out here that the artists songs have a lot of features from the Sanaani art of singing, such combination had widely spread for its special style and Yafiee songs became strongly attached to the Sanaani songs as if they were two sides of a coin. The Yafiee art has strong ties with the Yafiee family than others, such conclusion made this type of singing more valuable, young generation of Yafie singers such as the artist Al Khalidy and Salim Al Bariee sang this type proudly and passionately.
Record Companies and Their Role in Spreading Yafiee Songs
During the 30s when Aden was witnessing a booming stage of the traditional artistic movement, record companies were founded, Adlon Company recorded some Yafiee songs for a number of singers for whom all their music were put by our artist, Yahya Al Yafiee.
Gulf Artists Sing for Him:
In 1941 the Bahraini Singer, Dhahi Al Waleed, recorded the song “Ya Markab Al Hind yabu degalen” also the Omani singer, Salim Rashid, recorded the same song the Yemeni artist, Yahya Al Yafiee, had composed and put the words for. An evidence that showed the widespread impact of Yafiee work.
Professional Yemeni singers and the Yafiee art :
It is worth mentioning here that Yemeni Singers were quite effected by the Yafiee type, as the singer Mohammed Murshid Naji and Mohammed Saad Abdullah and many others, also singers from other countries as the Saudi artist Mohammed Abdo and Abdul Majid Abdullah choosing from the Yemeni artistic stream some of their features.
In conclusion we feel proud of our Yemeni artistic identity, and especially the distinguished features of the artist Yahya Omer Al Yafiee who wondered a lot settling finally in India where he married there but has no children. His creative works live in our memories hoping that our young generation could make use of and would protect our original artisticYemeni streams.
By: Hind Shaker Mohammed
Yemen Times
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