Michel Bismut — Ur

I recently came across this album, a nicely balanced mixing of jazz and Arabic music.  Somewhat reminiscent of Rabih Abou-Khalil's music, but with more emphasis on traditional Arabic elements, especially with the oud playing.  I can't seem to find out much about the musicians.  Anyone know about them? I particularly enjoy the playing of Pardo and Nabil Khalidi.

 Michel Bismut (double bass), Jorge Pardo (soprano saxophone), Nabil Khalidi (oud), Keyvan Chemirani (zarb, daf, gatam)

Nadim — Rabih Abou Khalil Sheet Music

Here's another one by Rabih Abou-Khalil.  This is from al-Jadida (roughly, "the new thing"), the first album I ever heard of his. Enjoy!

 

Bill Frisell — The Intercontinentals

Bill Frisell is a unique musician, and probably the most immediately identifiable jazz guitarist of the past 30 years. He is constantly exploring new ensemble sounds and The Intercontinentals is a group that he put together to showcase the sounds of Africa and the middle east. Christos Govetas is a Greek oud player from Macedonia who plays in the Turkish style.

I guess this is another one that doesn't qualify as "Arabic", but I bend the rules for any jazz with oud. This is a really good album, one that appeals to a wide range of people. Frisell reportedly conceived the project as a collaboration with legendary Malian guitarist Boubacar Traore, but unfortunately it was not possible to make the record with him. They are joined by violinist Jenny Scheinmann, Brazilian guitarist Vinicius Canturia, and Malian percussionist Sidiki Camara, as well as slide guitarist Greg Leisz.

Marcel Khalife — Taqasim

Marcel Khalife needs no introduction to those familiar with the oud. A masterful player, composer, singer, and songwriter, he has contributed much to the world of Arabic music and oud playing. This album, a straightforward trio with bass and percussion, showcases the oud and the jazzier side of his playing in a stripped-down acoustic setting. Highly recommended.

Souren Baronian — Taksim

Souren Baronian is a tremendously talented Armenian-American clarinetist with extensive experience in both middle-eastern music and jazz. While his middle-eastern jazz music has influences primarily from Turkey and Armenia, and therefore isn't "Arabic jazz" exactly, I felt that the kinship of maqam-based music made it worthy of mention here. He studied with the reclusive jazz legend Lennie Tristano as well as the respected Turkish master Safet Gundeger, and has performed with many jazz greats like Carla Bley, Phil Woods, Paul Motian.

 He leads Taksim, his group that presents an original synthesis of jazz and eastern music. Their album from 2002 "Blue Algae" is worth a listen for Boronian's unique compositional and playing styles, as well as the masterful musicians in the group like the phenomenal oud player Haig Manoukian.
 

In addition, he performs in ensemble that have a somewhat more traditional approach, like his trio Transition, which released a wonderful album called Desert Winds.
 

Rabih Abou Khalil Sheet Music — Nightfall

Rabih Abou-Khalil was the first oud player I ever heard. The first year or so after I started playing the oud, I transcribed a ton of his tunes. I led a kind of "tribute" band for a while in New Orleans that focused on playing his music. I'm going to post some of them here occasionally. This one is “Nightfall” off his album Between Dusk and Dawn. It uses the Sama'i Thaqil rhythm, but doesn't adhere to the traditional Sama'i form.

You can get the mp3 album from Amazon:

Gord Grdina

Gord Grdina is a talented jazz guitarist, oud player and composer from Vancouver, B.C.
He has a bunch of records which feature different aspects of his playing and writing.

One of the most notable is Think Like the Waves, recorded in 2006.  Grdina wrote all the music, and plays guitar and oud alongside the legendary jazz musicians Gary Peacock and Paul Motian.
Peacock is best known as the longstanding bassist in Keith Jarrett's “Standards” trio, while Motian led a number of groups in NY over the years after gaining notoriety with Bill Evans' trio with Scott LaFaro.

Grdina is adventurous—this music, while informed by tradition, is at least equally influenced by jazz musicians like Paul Bley, Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, and Ornette Coleman.  Peacock mentored Grdina for many years and they clearly have a special relationship on this recording. 



Click the image to listen to or purchase the album on Amazon.

Shusmo - Mumtastic

Buzuq player and composer Tareq Abboushi has put together another excellent Arabic-meets-jazz record, entitled Mumtastic. 
Tareq studied jazz and piano at the esteemed William Patterson University in New Jersey, but grew up in Ramallah and has lived in Brooklyn for the past several years.  A soulful player and improviser with a deep sense of tarab, he is also a very talented composer with a gift for lively, memorable tunes.

Shusmo's previous recording "One" was excellent, and this is may be even better.
A better review than I can write is here: www.rootsworld.com/0603123/reviews/mumtastic-11.shtml
Also:
secretarchivesofthevatican.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/album-review-mumtastic-by-shusmo
and:
insideworldmusic.blogspot.com/2011/06/cd-review-tareq-abboushi-shusmos.html
and:
kunc.org/post/shusmo-funky-new-yorkers-middle-eastern-roots

Astrakan Café - Sheet Music

Here's a transcription I did of the title piece from Anouar Brahem's album Astrakan Cafe. There are two versions on the album. They are mainly the same, but are slightly different in the number of repeats and some of the rhythms are played with variations throughout. I tried to create an overall version. Another ending possibility is just repeating the last four bars and fading out.

You can purchase this great album from Amazon:
Astrakan Café