Swinging rhythms and improvised riffs, an exclamatory “Ah!” followed by a series of syncopated beats that should sound discordant but somehow don’t. Audiences propelled to their feet, tapping and jiving along to the ecstatic music. This is the portrait often painted of jazz music...

The Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum may be one of the world’s most documented and obsessed-about musical figures, especially in the Arab world, but the star who was at the height of her fame and influence in the 1950s and 1960s still has the power...