Event Details
Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012
Start Time: 10:45 PM
Event Type: Concerts, Special Events
Last Updated: June 15, 2012
Views: 15
Ibrahim MaaloufIbrahim Maalouf was born into a family of intellectuals and artists; he is the son of trumpeter Nassim Maalouf and pianist Nada Maalouf, nephew of the writer Amin Maalouf and grandson of journalist, poet and musicologist Rushdi Maalouf. He is noted for playing Arabic music with quarter tones on the trumpet, which is a rare skill, pioneered by his father in the 1960s. Intense, ingenious creativitybalanced with a well-honed, open-minded musicalityguides Diagnostic (Harmonia Mundi/Mster), the third album in a striking triptych that reveals the Lebanese-born, French-based musician in all his wild glory. Maalouf can swing into a Latin beat, whip up a microtonal Balkan brass procession, effortlessly reimagine microtonal Arab melodies, or kick out the jams in a cleverly crafted shout-out to metal or Michael Jackson. The vivid expressiveness all serves to get to the heart of Maaloufs life, loves, and past, in an unflinching exploration of connections, change, and musics therapeutic insights. The results are strikingly catchy, intriguing, and emotional. What lies around Maalouf is the myriad cultures and deep histories of traditional cosmopolitan capitals, like Paris and New York and Beirut, where the gold mine of Arab, Eastern European, South American, and Western classical and pop traditions can be encountered and heard. I really try my maximum to make people discover my mother culture, while arranging it in a different way. And this traditional music cant be hidden,. Beirut, the track that most closely echoes Maaloufs live sound, came to him as a young man, wandering through the devastated city listening to Zeppelin on his walkman. I live between France and Lebanon, and of course, Lebanons sufferings have inspired me, says Maalouf. But I mostly prefer to use the beautiful things that are around me to inspire me. Some of these beautiful things include samples of family parties, the roar of metal-friendly guitars, strident choruses of voices, all woven together with Maaloufs malleable trumpet, piano, bass, and electronics. Im trying to make my trumpet sound like its speaking. Im trying to say things without words, he reflects. Its all the things I needed to say, that I couldnt explain and that my music helped me say.