Ali Hassan Kuban was an Egyptian musician. He was born in a small village in Nubia in 1929 or 1933 (sources differ on that point) and died in Cairo in 2001. Ali Hassan Kuban began his musical career as a child singing on the boats on the Nile. In 1942 he moved with his parents to Cairo where he learned to play several musical instruments. He played in several traditional Nubian bands and formed his own group which combined Western and traditional Nubian instruments and incorporated outside elements in the traditional Nubian music.