Welcome to the Arabic Jazz blog!

Ahlan wa sahlan!

Welcome to my blog. I've created this blog to share information and news about music that mixes elements of jazz and Arabic music. I'll also share scores and transcriptions etc. for musicians.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Chaouki Smahi

Chaouki Smahi was born 1963 in Morocco and brought up in Algeria. He now lives in Switzerland. He is an accomplished oud player and violinist and percussionist. He has a few recordings, most of which involve jazz musicians.
Sadaka is my favorite of his recordings. Straightforward arrangements and recording, with the focus on oud, saxophone and percussion. Smahi plays in a fairly traditional Arabic style, but Mariano tastefully incorporates jazz ideas on the saxophone.


Charlie Mariano and Chaouki Smahi -Sadaka
Chaouki Smahi: oud, violin, vocals, darbouka
Charlie Mariano: alto saxophone

He is on another Charlie Mariano record called Nassim which is somewhat less succesful but still has some nice moments. It's definitely more of a deliberate "Arabic-Jazz" fusion, but overreaches at times.

It doesn't seem to be available in the U.S., but you might be able to find a download somewhere . . .

1 comment:

Meriam said...

So wonderful Thank you for posting this :)