Smadj - Take It and Drive (2004)

«Tunisian born, Parisian musician Jean-Pierre Smadja (Smadj) grew up listening to Oriental, Brazilian, funk, soul, and folk music. Entering a jazz school at age 15 due to his intense interest in the guitar, Smadj’s musical development came to be characterized by transforming traditional jazz styles into eclectic sounds. This interest in the mechanics of making music led Smadj to pursue a degree in sound engineering, which led to a fruitful career as a recording & sound engineer for famous classical and folk musicians. Releasing his first album in 1994, it wasn’t until 2000 that Smadj became recognized on an international scale for his signature blending of acoustic and electronic sounds on “Equilibriste”, which would ascend on the “European World Music Charts” to the number 4 position. In 2002, Smadj joined fellow “ud magician”, French musician Mehdi Haddab, for a special project that would transport the oud to the 21st century in “DuOuD”. Supporting their triumph of an album with a 2 year world tour, the album also received 2nd place in the “Best Album” category at the prestigious BBC World Music Awards. In 2003, Smadj joined master percussionist Burhan Öçal for “Burhan Öçal & The Trakya All Stars featuring Smadj” and in 2005 he stepped behind the scenes to serve as artistic director for Burhan Öçal’s “New Dream”. Smadj continues making music in the city where east meets west, Istanbul.» (Wikipedia)

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Anouar Brahem, John Surman & Dave Holland - Thimar (1998)

«The role of the Arabic, lute-like, stringed instrument, the oud, has been revolutionalized through the playing of Anouar Brahem. While used in the past to accompany vocalists, the oud is used by Brahem as an imaginative solo instrument. In 1988, Tunisian newspaper, "Tunis-Hebdo", wrote, "If we had to elect the musician of the 80s, we would have, without the least hesitation, chosen Anouar Brahem". The British daily newspaper, "The Guardian", wrote that Brahem was "at the forefront of jazz because he is far beyond it"…» (More here)

«A strikingly attractive "transcultural" project initiated by Tunisian oud virtuoso Anouar Brahem, who is both an innovator and a traditionalist in the deepest sense (he has been credited with "restoring the sovereignty of the oud" in Tunisian music). There is no glib fusion of traditions on Thimar but rather a coming together of three very distinctive musicians who sacrifice none of their individuality in the search for common ground. Arab classical music and jazz are the reference points here, but Anouar Brahem, John Surman and Dave Holland meet as improvisors not limited by genre definition.» (ECM)

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Ghalia Benali & Timnaa - Wild Harissa (2001)

«Ghalia Benali from Tunisia is one of the musical surprises to emerge from the Arab world at the turn of the millennium. A successful actress, she played a leading role in the film "La saison des hommes". Her highly acclaimed concerts in Tunis, Paris and Brussels had the record companies queuing to sign her up, but she preferred to wait until she had found her dream line-up. And now she has - Timnaa is an international ensemble whose virtuoso fiddles, flamenco guitars and Arab percussion carry her expressively smoky and profoundly emotional voice from Tunisia to Andalusia and back again, via the Balkans and Brazil. Ghalia herself describes her new project as "Arab music in new forms, sometimes festive but never profane, occasionally romantic and elegiac, or even classical and medieval, and sometimes wild and over the top – a passport to many cultures, a microcosm that merges the centuries into some-thing new".» (Network)

«Ghalia Benali jest arabską śpiewaczką i tancerką, która rozwinęła skrzydła w Brukseli, gdzie przyjechała studiować sztuki plastyczne. Tam poznała muzyków z grupy Yoda, której koloryt tworzyły instrumenty z różnych stron świata: australijskie didgeridoo, orientalne perkusjonalia, andaluzyjska gitara, afrykańskie djembe. Ta różnorodność to także cecha albumu "Wild Harissa". Słychać tu m.in. echa gitarowego flamenco, łkające skrzypce, a przede wszystkim głos Ghalii Benali - dźwięczny, zalotny i zmysłowy, egzotyczny. Muzyka jest żywa, oparta głównie na arabskich skalach i rytmach, ale słychać też dziedzictwo Europy; są nawet nawiązania do muzyki dawnej. Koncertom towarzyszy taniec, nam musi wystarczyć muzyka. Zapewniam jednak - i tak gra jest warta świeczki.» (Gazeta Wyborcza)

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Dhafer Youssef - Digital Prophecy (2003)

«Tunisia-born singer and oudist Dhafer Youssef should be recording for ECM. His albums have a similar spiritual, centered quality to the work appearing on that label, and his work on this album with some of Norway's top jazz players points completely in that direction. He lives very much on the cutting edge, taking things even further than he did on 2001's Electric Sufi. Where that album used electronica as the periphery of the music, here he brings it to the heart of the sound, integrating it seamlessly into his compositions, as on "Aya," where a seemingly found sound becomes the heartbeat of the track. His collaborators, including trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, offer him plenty of space, and that's what the music needs — it's as wide open as the Tunisian desert. He's a good player of the oud, but his real weapon — apart from his sense of composition — is his voice, with a range that's truly stunning, and never put to better use than on "Dawn Prayer," where his high notes, seemingly impossible, stand as a revelation, with an aching melody that just stays in the brain. At the same time as Youssef pushes at the edges in his work, there's a sense of the music still being very centered in North Africa. On the basis of this, Youssef is extending his cutting edge even further.» (AMG)

«Interprete inizialmente di sonorità molto vicine alla tradizione più pura del mondo musicale nordafricano, con il disco Electric Sufi Youssef cominciò ad andare cautamente incontro a suoni più moderni, verificandone la compatibilità con le sue pulsioni più naturali. In questo bel disco molti elementi concorrono a mettere in contatto, ma nello stesso tempo tengono a debita distanza, i suoni più moderni dell’elettronica e dei campionamenti del nord Europa e le sue radici tunisine. Dal titolo del disco che oppone due termini lontani anni luce all’immagine di Youssef in copertina, icona delle tradizioni del suo paese, all’affermazione finale nel bel libretto di accompagnamento: “il mio ultimo respiro sarà in arabo”. Con lui, bravissimo e a tratti impressionante (la sua voce non sembra tale in Dawn Prayer, e l’oud del primo brano è scarno e immaginifico), musicisti già conosciuti e affermati per operazioni musicali innovative, a cominciare da Bugge Wesseltoft, per continuare con Eivind Aarset e Rune Arnesen, fino agli altri che completano un mosaico quasi perfetto.Un mosaico che ci racconta come i generi musicali possano incontrarsi senza sforzi, grazie alle sensibilità straordinarie degli attori in scena, e come la musica araba sia forse la più adatta a scoprire gli incastri preziosi con l’elettronica; e come il termine world music possa vivere una rappresentazione reale e affascinante in lavori come questo, tutto da godere.» (EGEA)

German review here

More on Dhafer Youssef at L’Arbre de les 1000 Musiques

Line-up:

Dhafer Youssef oud, vocal
Eivind Aarset guitars, electronics
Ronu Majumdar bansuri
Dieter Ilg acoustic bass
Rune Arnesen drums, programming
Bugge Wesseltoft piano, keyboards
Jan Bang beat programming
Nils Petter Molvaer trumpet

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