Rabih Abou Khalil

One of Rabih Abou-Khalil's earlier albums, Between Dusk and Dawn features stellar sidemen such as master percussionist Glen Velez and jazz saxophonist Charlie Mariano. In places it exhibits that ecstatic melding of jazz and Arabic music that was later perfected on Blue Camel. But in other places it gives us long patches of noodling and less-then-engaging playfulness. An example of the former would be the first track, "Dusk." At just over 14 minutes, more than half of this piece is devoted to a shapeless and tiresome prelude for percussion and oud (Arabic lute). An example of the latter is the aptly named "The Thing That Came Out of the Swamp," which features everything but the kitchen sink, including Glen Velez's overtone singing, in a fantasy that sounds like Stravinsky crossed with Steve Reich…

Rabih Abou-Khalil, among the rare Arabic musicians who have recorded and played extensively with jazz musicians, successfully navigates the middle ground between traditional North African sounds and hard bop. Besides the leader's oud and flute, alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune provides the blues bite; bassist Glen Moore, the rhythmic connection, and percussionists Ramesh Shotham and Nabil Khaiat, provide the African seasoning.

In a satisfying stylistic experiment, Lebanese composer and oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil has decided to put together an album of jazz numbers with no Western instruments other than Glen Moore's standup bass. There is Yassin El-Achek on violin, but the violin is almost as much a Middle Eastern instrument as a Western one. El-Achek usually remains in the Middle Eastern style of playing, but occasionally, as on "Wordless," he double-stops and trills like Paganini.
The tracks are nicely constructed, and the improvisations are not allowed to run amok or become shapeless. The tunes are, as usual with Abou-Khalil, Middle Eastern melodies with phrases and turns that nod at Western notions of what "Oriental" music sounds like…

Of the many exceptional world music projects by the Lebanese oud master Khalil, this is one of the more intriguing cuts used from the soundtrack of the Yilmaz Arslan-directed film Yara. Though the verbose liner notes by Harry Lachner extensively describe music in movies, it gives little clue as to how this music connects to the flick. But the music of Khalil does stand beautifully on its own, generally of a very patient construct, the oud player joined by violinist Dominique Pifarely, cellist Vincent Courtois, and Nabil Khaiat on the frame drum. Selections flow freely into each other, much unison playing between the string instruments is prevalent, and Khalil takes the bulk of the lead, but Pifarely and Courtois have many opportunities to contribute melodically…

Oud master Rabih Abou-Khalil continues to break new boundaries with this recording, Journey To The Centre Of An Egg. Even many of the most singular and iconoclastic musicians will establish a foundation niche upon which they construct their adventurous explorations. Rabih refuses to be bound even by his own previous designs. With Journey To The Centre Of An Egg, his 11th Enja production and the second to be licensed to Justin Time for North America (following up on the heavily acclaimed Morton's Foot), Abou-Khalil brings the piano into his unique musical world for the first time on record. Most appropriately, he has chosen the extraordinary German pianist/composer Joachim Kühn, one of Europe's most accomplished and respected jazz musicians since he arrived on the scene in the early 1960s.

Recorded in Germany by Beirut native Rabih Abou-Khalil, this moody, atmospheric album is more like a soundscape than a collection of songs. Abou-Khalil's primary instrument is the oud, a lute-like instrument traditionally used in Arab music. This low, sweet-toned, obviously Far Eastern instrument is teamed up with nothing more than Arab drums in most of the songs. Sparse vocals, performed by Selim Kusur, do little to create any discernible melody. Instead, they add texture and effect - or an intro in the case of "Incantation." Upbeat songs such as "Awakening" are carried along by the drums, while the melancholy sound of the oud dominates introspective tracks such as "Nafas." This album is a far cry from the complex, percussion-heavy, often slightly jangly albums that usually make it to the world music section in Western record stores…

Like Abou-Khalil’s other recordings, this CD is testament to the heights that can be reached, both artistically and humanely, when people from different cultures and backgrounds unite in creative curiosity and mutual respect. Without any of the musicians compromising their cultural heritage Abou-Khalil produces a music that is new yet strangely familiar, progressive yet equally traditional. With its opposites so homogeneous and natural, this music is fresh and sparklingly vivid as if it had always naturally existed in exactly this way.

Odd Times is Rabih Abou-Khalil's first live album. Since it would be impractical to assemble all of the guests he has had on his albums over the years, Abou-Khalil has gone in the other direction and pared his ensemble down to what is for him the bare bones: himself on oud, Howard Levy on harmonica, Michel Godard on tuba and serpent (an antique form of the tuba), Mark Nauseef on drums, and Nabil Khaiat on frame drums. Most live albums contain well-known pieces from the artist's studio repertoire; in contrast, Odd Times is mostly new material. In general, the album is a mix of shapeless, overlong attempts at atmosphere ("Elephant Hips") and fairly bouncy and fun items ("Q-Tips")…

As Il Sospiro shows, Rabih Abou-Khalil's music is unique, in that it spans East and West - or rather the Middle-East and Europe - in a way other composers have attempted, but with much greater success. Raised in the cosmopolitan climate of pre-civil war Lebanon, and privileged to learn the oud there, he was forced to migrate to Munich where he studied classical flute. His rediscovery of oriental music from a European vantage point has both freshness and also the familiarity of long acquaintance. His best disc to date has been Yara, a film soundtrack for which he teamed his oud with a violin and cello plus the Middle Eastern frame drum, to create a haunting sequence of visually evocative pieces. With Il Sospiro he makes his first solo foray as an unaccompanied oud player, and the result is even more bewitching…

The band on Morton's Foot is a truly international ensemble. Composer and master oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil has assembled a cast that includes accordionist Luciano Biondini and clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi along with Michel Godard on tuba, Jarrod Cagwin on trap and frame drums, and exotic Italian vocalist Gavino Murgia. Abou-Khalil composed all the tracks here. He shares the front line with Biondini and Mirabassi as Godard adds a serious bottom-end punch to the rhythm section. Certainly there are precedents for a group like this: Richard Galliano's 1980s bands as well as Chris Speed and Brad Shepik's Pachora, for example…