Syed was a reporter for TIME, based in the London bureau. In London’s Jazz Cafe, the sound of Egyptian legend Umm Kulthum’s song Alf Leila Wleila is reverberating around an atmosphere of anticipation.

Here's a short note from Jannis himself: "Earlier this month I was in North Africa for another digging trip and ended up finding quite some records I didn’t know before or I had no copy of so I felt ...