Joseph Tawadros

Joseph Tawadros is a stellar young oud player. He was born in Egypt and grew up in Australia.
He has a number of recordings, but this is his first foray into Arabic jazz. The Hour of Separation, a recent release, has an all-star lineup of great jazz musicians.

Joseph Tawadros, oud John Abercrombie, guitar John Patitucci, bass Jack DeJohnette, drums James Tawadros, percussion

Rima Khcheich

Rima Khcheich is a talented singer from Lebanon. Here she teams up with stellar Dutch jazz saxophonist Yuri Honing and his trio in a live performance. Highly recommended: their Arabic version of Bjork's "Isobel" is alone worth the price of the cd. They perform versions of several classic Arabic songs ("Emta Hata'araf", "La Enta Habibi", "Ma Dam Tihib Betenkour lieh") which are re-arranged to include compelling jazz improvisations.

Yuri Honing - tenor saxophone Tony Overwater - double bass Joost Lijbaart - drums Rima Khcheich- vocals Basem Havar - djose Latif Al-Obaidy - ud, darbuka, riqq

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)

Amir ElSaffar

Iraqi-American trumpeter, santour player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar grew up in River Forest, IL, a suburb west of Chicago; he was first exposed to jazz recordings by his father, and his mother taught him to sing and play American folk songs on ukulele and guitar when he was nine. He eventually found his calling with the trumpet
After moving to New York in 2000, he became more involved with studying the Arab and specifically Iraqi maqam. In 2002, ElSaffar immersed himself in the music of his father's ancestral past, the Iraqi maqam. He traveled to Iraq, throughout the Middle East and to Europe pursuing masters who could impart to him this centuries-old oral tradition. He learned to play the santour (Iraqi hammered dulcimer) and to sing, and now leads Safaafir, the only ensemble in the US performing Iraqi Maqam in its traditional format. He has also uses techniques for the trumpet that enable microtones and ornaments that are characteristic to Arabic music but are not typically heard on a trumpet.

The record Two Rivers is ElSaffar's clearest mixing of jazz and Arabic music.

Amir ElSaffar: trumpet, voice, santoor Rudresh Mahanthappa: alto sax Zafer Tawil: violin, oud, dumbek Tareq Abboushi: buzuq, frame drums Carlo Rosa: bass Nasheet Waits: drums.

Ahmed Abdul Malik

Jazz Sahara (1958) Ahmed Abdul-Malik (oud, bass); Jack Ghanaim (qanun); Naim Karacand (violin); Johnny Griffin (tenor saxophone); Al Harewood (drums), Mike Hamway, percussion

East Meets West (1958) Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass, oud); Lee Morgan (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Benny Golson and Johnny Griffin (tenor saxophones); Ahmed Yetman (qanun); Naim Karacand (violin); Bilal Abdurrahman, Mike Hamway (Darabeka, daf).

The earliest attempt at jazz fusion with middle eastern music. Basically they play some dawalib (sing., doulab: short instrumental piece often used as an introduction) and improvise. Abdul Malik was a well-known jazz bass player of Sudanese descent, best known for his work with Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Both albums feature his Monk bandmate Johnny Griffin on saxophone along with various middle-eastern nightclub musicians and jazz musicians such as Benny Golson, and Lee Morgan.
Jazz Sahara is a strong album, while East Meets West is a little uneven (though with some excellent performances). In the liner notes to Jazz Sahara, Abdul-Malik pointedly avoids referring to the music as "Arabic", and suggest "Mid-Eastern" is more accurate because of the varied traditions involved. The oud playing is somewhat rudimentary, but the overall effect is compelling.