Kalthoum is a celebration of women who changed the course of history and whose artistic influence still has an impact on our daily lives. I therefore chose Oum Kalthoum, an iconic figure, a true monument in the history of the Arab people, and furthermore the voice I have been listening to the most since my early childhood.
Leo Fuld was the last performer of the Yiddish popular ballads, who´s career started well before the 2nd World War and ended short before his death in 1997. In 1938 he hit Broadway and recorded and performed with well-known artists like Frank Sinatra or Edith Piaf. Just a few months for his death he performed with the Algerian rockgroup Railand and recorded The Legend.
Heralded by The New York Times as a "virtuoso of the quarter-tone trumpet," Maalouf gracefully marries musical traditions from his native Lebanon and his adopted France, blending Levantine melodies with modern jazz improvisations. In 2016, he performed at the Lincoln Center, alongside pianist Frank Woeste, saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Clarence Penn, in an unforgettable tribute to Oum Kalthoum, the legendary Egyptian vocalist.
The mystery tour begins even before the CD is cracked and played: Zohar translates to "Sacred Light," and the album's title refers to a Kabbalistic numerical series. The band is built around the talents of Erran Baron Cohen and Andew Kramer, two London-based multi-instrumentalists who are inspired by their common Jewish heritage, plus assorted devotional traditions and Middle-Eastern musical styles. These sources are the epicenter of their kaleidoscopic techno and ambient soundscapes, adding a weighty soulfulness to the antic, fearless, yet oddly respectful amalgams that comprise the album. Sampled and manipulated voices of cantors, muezzins, and groaning Byzantine super-basses are heard, along with fervent exhalations from desert divas Oum Kalthoum and Dimi Mint Abba…