news 

            al ûd 

see article about 
Dhafer Youss
ef

see review ELECTRIC SUFI
in HEAVEN  1 /2002


 

NEWS  NEWS  NEWS  NEWS  NEWS  NEWS  NEWS  N                                     news
Ûd-reggae with Massilia    Ûd goes Sami Yoik
      Sound System Hyperion with Billy Higgins
Antonio Faraò's arabesques   Living Colour rhythm   
      section igniting
        Electric Sufi
    Smadj - ûd-player  
  making drum 'n' bass
  
 Avishai Cohen: Ûd meets 
        
funk
and blues
   L'energie métissée  
     de
Dezoriental
   Rabih Abou-Khalil's   
   
Strawberry wisdom  
      
   Haig Yazdjian - YERAZ

Yuri Honing + Rima Ksheish ** Armenian Navy Band ** Dhafer Youssef ** Ysbreker ûd series
                                         c   o   n   c   e   r   t   s
 
last updated 19-12-01                                                                                                           home


Ben Allison,

wanderer 
between worlds    

 

 

 


Mark Gross'
Riddle of the Sphinx

Christos Tsiamoulis +

+Khalil Keradouman
  David Torn playing
  ûd on Fima Ephron's
 album SOUL MACHINE
   
 See also Bill Laswell        
   
Filmworks 2000

        
  Tzadik
concerts/festivals

-
Finkel and Arabian Waltz
-
Yazdjian in Bavaria
-
Turkish ûd in 'Dutch'   
  concert music
-
Arabo-Andalusian Carmen
- Yair Dalal between chairs

december 2001 CD
- Dhafer Youssef Electric
  Sufi  
-
Luthomania  
- Haig Yazdjian
Yeraz
- Mark Gross
Riddle of The
  Sphinx

- Henry Threadgill's Zooid
 
Up Popped Two Lips
- Omar Sosa Prietos
-
Erik Truffaz 
- Simon Shaheen 
- Ramesh Shotham

septemb 2001 CD

- Ûd-reggae with Massilia 
  Sound System
- Christos Tsiamoulis  
   with Khalil Karadouman

may/june 2001 CD

- Ûd goes Sami Yoik
-
Wanderer between worlds
- Riddle of the Sphinx
- Dellahi

- Crossing the river
-
L'energie métissée de
  Dezoriental
hits ...
- Armenian Navy Band
- Maghreb: Núba Al-Istihlá
-
Mashreq: Yemenite classical
   music
-
Entre Nile et Ganges
 
- In the Desert 

march/april 2001 

- Strawberry wisdom
j- Pesach
- Gasparyan
on Turkish label
- Rosegarden - Gulistan
-
Vous connaissez le club
  Basraf ?
-
Austrian connection -
  Electric Sufi
- Groove alla Turca
- Smadj -
the world's only ûd-
  player making drum 'n' bass
- La Mar Enfortuna
- Medina (R.. Taha)
-
In the Desert
- Ûd
meets funk and blues
- Dancesinging
- Sesame
- Banzi solo
- Fitting Room (Courtois)
- Delgado


"Oldies"

- Kashmir




 


Ûd goes Sami yoik 

Marko Jouste is the first ûd-player from Suomi (Finland) to enter this site. Finland not only has his own tango tradition. Surprisingly enough there are also orchestras like Mewlana specialized in Ottoman art music and belly dance. Marko Jouste plays with vocalist Annukka Hirvasvuopio, Mikko Vanhanen on ney, clarinet and keyboard and Karo Sampela on percussion in the group VILDDAS, founded about 5 years ago. Vilddas is a Tampere based ensemble that blends the sound of northern winds and tundras’ sounds with that of olive groves and deserts of the south. Their first album is self-named and was released on the Finish WOOD-label. Mikko Vanhanen and Karo Sampela are also members of the well known Finnish Balkan group Slobo Horo from Tampere (Slobo Horo played the Roskilde Rockfestival in 1994). After a reunion in 1999 Slobo Horo has released it’s 3rd cd Divane on Rockadillo.

Ben Allison,
wanderer between worlds

Bassplayer Ben Allison, a young versatile jazz musician, is a name to keep in mind. He is honest, open-minded, adventurous and has the gift to create something new from the past. He plays with traditionalist Wynton Marsalis just as with life long improviser Lee Konitz, with Knitting Factory people going wild or with an ethnic jazzgroep like Armenian folk-based Night Ark (with ûd-player Ara Dinkyian and percussionist Arto Tuncboyacian). With his own group Medicine Wheel he produces a wonderful transparent sound, which is compact and open at the same time. This and other amazing groups emerged from the still young Jazz Composers Collective. On his album, Third Eye, Ara Dinkyian is featured on ûd and gümbüs. His most recent album Riding The Nuclear Tiger issued by Palmetto Records is even worthwhile. 

t
Ûd-reggae with Massilia Sound System

Rap with bagpipes, reggae with Arabian lute, brass, musette, african drums, samples, street noise of Marseille and a lot of  improvised, everyday singing in a lively audio film full of lively sound pictures and surprising transitions, that is Massilia Sound System (Adam 2001). Within a big group of musicians Marc Bellity playing laût. Check out the ûd-reggae Méfi !



L'énergie métissée de Dezoriental hits the ...

Not only another new band which shows how to combine the Gnawa and Nuba of Maghreb music with break beats, drum n’bass, jazz, musette and the speed rhythm of Macedonian brass bands. Under the direction of lead vocalist Abdel Waheb Sefsaf and with a striking line-up of accordeon, tuba and ud this band links future and past and pushes the borders. Tuba player Laurent Guitton matches perfectly with ûd-player Alaoua Idir and accordeonist Jean-Luc Frappa. They follow the pace set by Michel Godard and Rabih Abou-Khalil. Together with two mighty percussionists, Stephane Prost and Tony Marcos they create depths and great dynamics. Recorded in Toulouse by Georges Baux, mixed by the renowned duo René Ameline/Pedja Babic in the Ferber Studio in Paris and released by Francis Dreyfus on his label Dreyfus discs. Dezoriental will give acte du presence at this year North Sea Festival in The Hague on Saturday, 14th of july.


Christos Tsiamoulis with Kh’alil Karadouman

Christos Tsiamoulis (ûd, saz, voc), Kh’alil Karadouman (kanoun, voc) Socrates Sinopoulos (lyra), Harris Lambrakis (ney), Thanassis Sofras (b), Vangelis Karidis (perc), Kaiti Koulia (voc). Lyra 2001


Riddle of the Sphinx ...

is the title of a new album of reedist Mark Gross from Baltimore with John LaBarbara on ûd. He works with a high caliber line-up: Mulgrew Miller, p, Brian Blade, dr, Darryl Hall, b, Joe Locke, vibes, marimba, Khalil Kwame Bell, perc.. Released by  J Curve (1011)


Cheb Mami's Dellahi 


with Haroun op ûd.
(description soon)



Armenian
Navy Band

Armenian Navy band released it's second album (description soon)

Maghreb: Núba Al-Istihlál

Nubas played by the Ibn Báya Ensemble (named after Andalusi philosopher musician Avempace (1070-1138)). With Omar Metioui (ûd, viola), Eduardo Paniagua (flutes), Luis Delgado (lute, perc) and El Arabi Serghini Mohammed (viola, vocal). Pneuma 2000.


Entre Nile et Ganges

Hussein el-Masry on ûd, Abdel Shams-El Din (perc), Narendra Batujuc (sitar), Hanif Khan (perc). Institute du Monde Arabe (IMA)


Mashreq: Yemenite classical music

played on ûd by Mohammed al-Harithi The Hour of Solomon. Intensive, rough, percussive. Ancient world shining through. Institute du Monde Arabe (IMA)

 

- Strawberry

The Strawberry-album of Rabih Abou-Khalil  is out: The Cactus of Knowledge. It is a 12tet with indispensable percussionist Nabil Khaiat from Syria, a new American drummer, Jarrod Cagwin, and a new clarinet player from Italy, Gabriele Mirabassi. In the brass section we find Eddie Allen (tp), Dave Ballou (tr), Tom Varner (french horn), Dave Bargeron (tuba), Michel Godard (tuba), Antonio Hart (as), Ellery Eskelin (ts). top


- Fitting Room

A new album of Vincent Courtois will be out in April (Enja). top


- Ud solo

Tarik Banzi has just finished a solo ûd album. Moroccon musician Banzi is artistic director of the multinational group Al-Andalus, residing in California. The album will be released in summer 2001. top


- Austrian connection - electric Sufi  --> article

Tunesian ûd player / vocalist Dhafer Youssef has recorded a new CD Electric Sufi with Mino Cinelu, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Will Calhoun, Deepak Ram et al.  top


- Gasparyan on Turkish label

Armenian duduk-player number 1, Djivan Gasparyan, has recorded together with Turkish guitar-player Erkan Ogur for the renowned  Turkish Kalan label. Ogur is well known for his work on fretless guitar. top


- Delgado

Multiinstrumentalist and electronics maestro Luis Delgado has a new cd El Hechizo de Babilonia released on Nubenegra. It is music inspired by feminine andalusi poetry of the 11th and 12th century. Featured musicians are María del Mar Bonet, Hossam Ramzy, Mariem Hassan, Herminia Hugenel and Jaime Muñoztop


- Groove Alla Turca

Percussionist/ud-player Burhan Öçal has often collaborated with jazzmusicians. This time he joined forces with  bassguitar-player Jamaaladeen Tacuma. They recorded Groove Alla Turca for Birdology with a mixed jazz-turkish music line-up also featuring  Natasha Atlas. There are the jazz musicians Jack Walrath (tp), Ben Schacter (sax), Rick Lannacone (g) and the Istanbul Oriental Ensemble: Yasar Sütoglu (cl), Fedih Tekyaygil (violin), Muzaffer Coskun (ûd), Alaattin Coskuner (kanoun), Ekrem Bagi (darbuka). See also the excellent recent release Caravanserai of the Istanbul Oriental Ensemble on Network. top


- Rose Garden - Gulistan

is the title of the newest cd of Bishan Chemirani playing together with Tigran Sarkissian, Henri Agnel, Ross Daly and the other Chemirani family members on percussion. top

 

Vous connaissez le club Basraf ?

Three Japanese women playing classical Arabian music from Tunesia and Egypt on ney, riqq, ûd and violin, that is something else !  They call themselves Le Club Basraf,  Jun Chiki Chikuma (ney, riqq),  Yoshiko Matsuda (ud) and Hiromi Nishidai (violin), scholar of famous Egyptian violin Player Abou Dagir. Their cd Classical Music of Tunisia and Egypt is released by Pastorale Recordstop

Sesame

SimSim ... they called their debut album. FisFüz, a young German group travelling along the old Ottomanian empire but also to the Caucasus and to Nubia.  FisFüz that is Murat Coskun (percussion, vocal), Annette Maye (clarinet), Karim Othman-Hassan (ûd) and Wolfgang Maye (double bass). They draw from the rich Mediterranean and Middle east heritage and deliver mature and new old music, swinging from deep within. It is released on  Peregrina Music,  a label which also hosts the two Brazilians Rosana & Zelia. top

Dancesinging  

We are still waiting for the first vocal project of composer/ûd-player Rabi Abou-Khalil. Meanwhile singer Jenny Evans who feels a direct affinty to his music adopted one of his pieces, wrote lyrics and and called the song Still She Dances. She recorded it for her new cd Gonna Go Fishin' top



Pesach - Paques - Pasen - Ostern - Eastern

Kamal Berrada is the young ûd-player of the Judeo-Arab ensemble Naguila. This ensemble with the hazan of the Montellier synagogue, André Taïeb, as singer and Mohamed Zeftari on violin, is led by Pierre-Luc Soussan. Their newest cd Hallel (L’empreinte digitale) presents sephardic chants for Pesach and other religious feasts. top

 

La Mar Enfortuna

On La Mar Enfortuna bass player/singer Oren Bloedow and singer Jennifer Charles, explore Sefardic songs and some Askenazy pieces too. Bloedow and Charles, both members of the rock group Elysian Fields, are accompanied by musicians like Steven Bernstein, Dany Blume, Ben Perowsky, Jamie Saft, Jane Scarpantoni, Kenny Wollesen, to name some of them. Their music is a place where progressive rock, jazz, latin and treasures from Sefardic heritage meet. In each piece a delicate blend of heterogeneous elements is created without loosing ground or becoming shrill or complicated. For instance ethereal moods go with dragging rhythms, Velvet Underground monotony or flashy strings. That gives the music a miraculous dry lightness and evokes an otherworld serenity. top

 

Smadj - the world´s only ud-player making drum n´bass

Two ûd-players play a role on the album New Deal : Jean Pierre Smadja aka Smadj himself and Mehdi Haddab. The ûd turns up as part of electronic soundscapes in which the pieces of Smadj are embedded. Smadj is versatile in playing a variety of acoustic instruments like ud, cumbus, guitar, sanza, mandolin, guimbri, bass and in programming. This album, featuring - amongst others – Nedim Nalbantoglu (v), Arach Khalatbari (perc), Pascale Teillet (b, guimbri), Maxime Zampieri (dr) and Sofi Hellborg (sax), is not just another soundscape colored by some exotic ingredients. It is a real journey into new territory. The listener is invited to travel - with his or her old suitcase. If you take your time you also will arrive at the hidden Wadi, the hidden track on this album. top

 

Ûd meets funk and blues  Ûd meets funk ..

Colors, third album of Israelian bass player Avishai Cohen, is an exceptional rich orchestrated album with fine, mature arrangements and passionate playing of a band of 14 young musicians. Amos Hoffman plays ûd on Shay Ke and Balkan. Jazz and ingredients from different worlds fit together perfectly and evoke a powerful flow of energy. top

 

Kashmir

Not new, but ... ! Everybody who grew up in the 60ties will recognize the tune Kashmere immediately. Kashmere is a strong piece suitable for putting in elements from other sources. At the crossroads of Welsh folkmusic, hard- rock and Arabian music: the 1994 live version (on the cd NO QUARTER (Atlantic)) by pioneering Led Zeppelin -members Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, recorded on Jamaa el Fna, Marrakesh’s central square, with Egyptian and Moroccon musicians (Abdel Salam Kheir on ûd) and the London Metropolitan orchestra. This is something else: no idle speed but rolling thunders telling stories.  top


Medina

Made in Medina by Rachid Taha is a heavy rock and funk affair nourished by the vibes of Paris, New Orleans, Algier and Tanger. What sounds as Arabian lute on the tracks of this cd is a mando-lute played by Hakim Hamadouche. This recording has more rock than his predecessor, the Arabian punk album diwân. top


Crossing the River 

After 5 years since their last album
temporal Radio Tarifa is crossing the river.  Between the typical sound of mediterrenean songs and flamenco taps with echoes of a splendid ancient past Cruzando el río digs into Japanese music as well as ancient flamish composer Josquin Deprez. Faín S. Dueras plays all the strings including the ûd. top



In the Desert

Shacharut the newest album of Israeli violin- and ûd-player Yair Dalal was recorded in a Bedouin tent in the desert and released on the Magda-label. The recording reflects the breathing of this special site and the 
etiquette of encounters in the desert. 
top 

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Finkel and Arabian Waltz 

Together with Raoul Herget and Richard Filz Austrian reed-player Sigi Finkel (Austrian Jazz Musician of the Year 2000) will perform the music of composer and ûd-player Rabih Abou-Khalil on Prestice-Festival in Czechoslovakia (8th of september 2001). top

Yazdjian in Bavaria Yazdjian in Bavaria

In the fall of 2001 Armenian ud-player Haig Yazdjian from Syria/Greece will perform with Bulgarian kavala-player Theodossii Spassov and American frame drummer/percussionist Glen Velez. They will appear at the Elmau festival in Bavaria, Germany. top



Turkish ud in Dutch concert music Turkish

Amsterdam centre for the newest music, DE YSBREKER, has brought together Interval Chamber & Percussion Group Amsterdam, led by Josep Vicent, with Turkish ûd-player Yurdal Tokcan. 6 contemporary composers living in Holland composed works for the encuentros project: Andrew Douw (A Summer’s Dance), Ned McGowan (Perspectives), Rokus de Groot (Seyir), Petros Ovsepyan (Three studies in past and present), Rafael Reina (Alquimia) and Gustavo A.Trujillo (Drums & Bass). 6th of april 2001 they presented their collaboration in concert. Years ago Theo Loevendie was one of the first Dutch composers to collaborate with Turkish musicians and to be influenced by Turkish music in his compositions.

Later this year there will be a follow-up (The Ottomanian Lute) in a series of performances by 3 ûd-players: Mehmet Yesilcay who will perform with renown ensemble Sarband 4th of october on the Ysbreker stage (the classical trace), Selahattin Erköse who will give a concert there with the Erköse Ensemble on 13th of december (the Gypsy trace)and finally on 7th of march 2002 Armenian ûd-player Boyaciyan with his ensemble (the minority trace). top


Arabo-Andalusian Carmen Arabo-Andalusian

Oliver Desbordes directs an Arabo-Andalusian version of  Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. The opera,  performed by Moroccon and French singers and musicians, premiered in Fes. After the successful Moroccon performances the group will tour in France. top


Between chairs 

Yair Dalal Israeli violin- and ûd-player not only saves and develops the musical heritage of Jewish people who were living in Iraq for centuries. He shares this musical tradition with Arabian musicians, plays and records with them. It is the same with Jewish communities in the Maghreb countries and in Turkey which derive from Andalusian music. All this music is (old) Jewish music. By the way: much older than the well known Jewish music from Eastern Europe and Russia. The actual political situations makes that Yair Dalal who also performs ancient Andalusian music with Jordi Savall meets difficulties in Israel as well as in Europe. In Israel he can hardly perform because he plays together with Arabian musicians. In Europe he meets a double problem: either he is not recognized as a musician making Jewish music or he is seen as a representative of Israel with it's actual government and therefore excluded from a festival as happened in France recently at the Angoulême festival Musiques Métisses. Be alert and attend his concerts when you get the opportunity ! top


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