Hamza El Din, a musician and composer who helped popularise ancient traditional songs from North Africa, has died. He was 76.
El Din died on Monday at Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, said hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp. His wife, Nadra, told The New York Times the cause of death was complications after surgery.
A cosmopolitan musician who taught ethnomusicology, El Din played a six-string lute known as an oud, which he accompanied with his reedy voice.
El Din’s songs reflected extensive research into the traditions of Nubia, an ancient North African kingdom on the upper Nile River.
He was born in 1929 in Egypt, in what had been the territory of ancient Nubia. He played with ensembles including the Kronos Quartet. He lived on and off in the San Francisco Bay area. — Sapa-AP