Bukra - Rabih Abou-Khalil Transcription

This is the title piece of of Rabih Abou-Khalil's album "Bukra". The album has a bunch of great tunes and some particularly intense saxophone playing by Sonny Fortune.

More info here.

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!

 

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:

Rabih Abou-Khalil, part 2

A couple of other nice recordings by Abou-Khalil:

Yara (1998):
very nice recording with strings.
Originally came about as music for a film of the same title.

Dominique Pifarely (violin), Vincent Courtois (cello), Nabil Khaiat (percussion)





Journey to the Centre of an Egg (2005):
One of Abou-Khalil's most modern-sounding records. Joachim Kühn's piano playing is inventive and dynamic, and challenges Abou-Khalil to stray a little farther from Arabic sounds into jazz territory.

Joachim Kühn (piano, alto saxophone), Jarrod Cagwin (drums, percussion),
Wolfgang Reisinger (additional percussion)

Rabih Abou-Khalil

Lebanese oud player, one of the first to work extensively with jazz musicians. A prolific composer, Abou-Khalil is known for his rhythmically intricate compositions that (unlike traditional Arabic music) frequently change meter in a free-flowing way, often several times within a phrase or section. He does not use any of the microtonal maqamat (modes, sing. maqam in his music. He generally performs with Western musicians, most of whom have jazz backgrounds. He occasionally works with Eastern musicians, such as on Roots & Sprouts and Tarab.

Selected discography:


Bukra (1988): with Sonny Fortune (alto sax), Glen Moore (bass), Glen Velez & Ramesh Shotham (percussion)



Roots & Sprouts (1990): Fairly traditional middle-eastern instrumentation:
Selim Kusur (nay), Yassin El-Achek (violin), Glen Moore (bass), Glen Velez (frame drums), Mohammad Al-Sous (darabukka)



Tarab (1992):
Selim Kusur (nay), Glen Moore (bass), Nabil Khaiat & Ramesh Shotham (percussion)



Blue Camel (1992): One of Abou-Khalil's jazziest records.
Charlie Mariano (alto sax), Kenny Wheeler (flugelhorn), Steve Swallow (bass)
Milton Cardona, Nabil Khaiat & Ramesh Shotham (percussion)