Photography, Music, Literature and everything else in between by Saâd Kadhi
May 31, 2012
Dhafer Youssef (oud) with Tigran Hamasyan (piano), Chris Jennings (double bass) and the uncanny Mark Guiliana (drums) playing Les Ombres Orientales, one of the many excellent tracks of Dhafer’s last album to date, Abu Nawas Rhapsody.
You can listen to the album version on Grooveshark.
Dhafer Youssef is one my two favorite oud players, the other being his tunisian compatriot Anouar Brahem.
Back in 2007, speaking about Byzance, another fantastic track on which Dhafer sides with guitarist Nguyên Lê and trumpeter Paolo Fresu I wrote:
Featuring two of my favorite artists, Guitar player Nguyên Lê and Oud player Dhafer Youssef, it has something very special that I can’t define clearly in words, that “transcends” Music and gives me a ruch of amazing and very enjoyable emotions with its oriental, almost hypnotic, tone.
Enough words. I will let the Music speaks for itself.
Jazz great Yusef Lateef playing Like It Is. This is the second track of The Blue Yusef Lateef issued on Atlantic Records in 1968. The strings quartet accompanying Mr. Lateef on this awesome piece of Music is conducted by William Fischer.
D’Angelo playing Spanish Joint featured in Voodoo which was released in 2000. I can’t express how much I like listening to this song backed by the amazing Roy Hargrove’s trumpet and by no less than Ahmir Thomson a.k.a. ?uestlove of The Roots fame at the drums.
Listen to the music and don’t be taken aback with the muscled attitude on the album’s cover art.
jazz is life. Life is jazz. It is even more true with a grain of soul or two…
The Train From Washington, another great song by Gil Scott-Heron, featured in Real Eyes (1980).
[…] You can depend on the politicians yeah
Always got a point of view
They are contemporary court magicians yeah
Sleight of mouth will dazzle you
You can depend on the repositions from them
Changes that you’ve got to go through
But don’t depend on the train from Washington
It’s one hundred years overdue
Vijay Iyer Trio’s Historicity album is incredibly good. Galang is one of my (many) favorite tracks on the album. The groove and rhythm are simply out-worldly. Who said life can go on without jazz?
Life without jazz doesn’t worth it, does it? The intertwinement of the instruments in this Portico Quartet piece called Zavodovski Island is beyond words. Soprano saxophone, hang, double bass and percussion all come together to celebrate rhythm & melody.
Anouar Brahem, a magnificent Oud player, with Barbaros Erköse (clarinet) and Lassad Hosni (bendir, darbouka) playing Astrakan Café (take 2). This song is featured in a 1999 record with the same name and released in 2000 by ECM if my memory serves me well.
Make no mistake. This is jazz, of a different nature but jazz still.
