Majeed Marhoon
| Majeed Marhoon | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Majeed Marhoon |
| Born |
17 August 1945 Hura, Bahrain |
| Died | 16 March 2010 (aged 64) Hura, Bahrain |
| Genres | Jazz, Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Saxophone |
| Years active | 1956 -2010 |
Majeed Marhoon (Arabic: مجيد مرهون) (1945–2010) was a Bahraini saxophonist, and a former leftist political activist with the National Liberation Front of Bahrain. He spent 22 years in prison in Bahrain between 1968 and 1990, accused of planting a bomb in the car of a British intelligence officer of 21 March 1966. Seventeen of his years in captivity were spent at the Jidda Island prison, four of those years in solitary confinement.
He claims to have been tortured in prison under the orders of British officer Ian Henderson.
At the Addaama neighborhood in Hoora – Bahrain, the neighborhood of the simple and the deprived, Majeed Marhoon was born on the hot afternoon of 17 August 1945.
Majeed says that his birth was one week after the second bombing of Japan by the American forces and the heat that day was extreme due to the spreading of atomic dust in the ozone layer.
Majeed faced the bitterness of life and poverty by excelling in school," I was one of the best students in the school despite the hardships of living, at times we used to go to bed with empty stomachs. In 1953, I was transferred to Gudaibiya elementary school before it was fully constructed. In that school I noticed the social differences between classes and I used to isolate myself trying to think and find reasons, but of no use, because the issue was bigger than my mind could handle. "Says Majeed.
In the academic year 1956, Majeed was asked by his arts and sports teacher, Mr. Salman Majid Al-Dallaal, to compose the music for a monologue of a school play. This was the first of Majeed's musical compositions; he was only ten years old when he composed this monologue which was broadcast on Radio Bahrain.
Every night, before he goes to bed, Majeed would listen to Radio Dhahran on an old radio that works on a dry battery. Radio Dhahran used to broadcast music 24 hours a day.
This boy was to become talented, addicted to symphony music that was rich in its diverse harmonies, even though he was unable to comprehend it completely at such an early age.
This triggered his curiosity and posed a real challenge for him to know more and motivated him towards persistence and hard work to enter the magical world of music.
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Wikipedia