ANOUAR BRAHEM - Blue Maqams
ECM CD 6025 5767265 & 2-LP 6025 5789542 1
Anouar Brahem: oud; Dave Holland: double bass; Jack DeJohnette: drums; Django Bates: piano
Recorded Avatar Studios, New York, May 2017
Tunisian oud player Brahem is a fine exponent of traditional Arabic music. He is also a well-versed collaborator with jazz musicians (recording in the 1990s, for example, with Jan Garbarek and with Dave Holland and John Surman). As he points out in the liner notes to this wonderful recording “…there is a kind of spontaneity in Arab music, a way of playing that allows musicians to go deep into their own feelings and take some liberties with the original scores through improvisations; and perhaps this somehow echoes what happens in jazz.” The set of tunes of this CD were composed by Brahem over the past few years (with a couple of older pieces, track 4, ‘Bahia’ and track 6 ‘Bom Dia Rio’). Even if you are not familiar with the rigours of the ways in which maqam scales work, you can easily sense how each piece has a clearly defined lyrical structure that the players follow closely. What you can also hear is the ways in which this structure provides opportunities to extemporise on the themes so that the performance of each piece has its own spontaneity.
The melodies that Brahem has composed provide an undulating lyrical platform on which the group builds its sound. The first track, ‘Opening Day’ begins with the theme being introduced on the oud, with bass and drums providing a gentle support, then around 2’ 25, Bates’ offers a delicate piano line which is then picked up and returned by Brahem. Over the next minute or so, piano and oud swirl around each other like a pair of swallows, until the piece resolves into a variation of its original theme which is played by bass, piano and oud in unison. This structure and interplay characterises all of the pieces in this set, whether the main theme is stated on oud, piano or double bass. Across all of this, DeJohnette provides a warm and subtle rhythmic veil that shimmers over the playing.
Throughout the set, Bates continues his exploration of the piano playing at its most delicate, offering an ideal foil for the complex sounds that the oud produces. Holland’s resonant bass grounds each piece, sometimes playing the melody with the other instruments and sometimes providing a gently circular riffs that pulse hypnotically (as on track 7 ‘Persopolis’s mirage’, track 8 ‘The road to Al-Sham’ and most clearly on track 9 'Unexpected outcomes'). The way the three lead instruments work around each other is fascinating. It would be trite (although true) to say that you have a Master Class in each of the instruments here. What is more exciting is that the group has developed a shared musical language that sits across maqam and jazz in ways which draw out and respect the traditions in each musical form.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
ECM CD 6025 5767265 & 2-LP 6025 5789542 1
Anouar Brahem: oud; Dave Holland: double bass; Jack DeJohnette: drums; Django Bates: piano
Recorded Avatar Studios, New York, May 2017
Tunisian oud player Brahem is a fine exponent of traditional Arabic music. He is also a well-versed collaborator with jazz musicians (recording in the 1990s, for example, with Jan Garbarek and with Dave Holland and John Surman). As he points out in the liner notes to this wonderful recording “…there is a kind of spontaneity in Arab music, a way of playing that allows musicians to go deep into their own feelings and take some liberties with the original scores through improvisations; and perhaps this somehow echoes what happens in jazz.” The set of tunes of this CD were composed by Brahem over the past few years (with a couple of older pieces, track 4, ‘Bahia’ and track 6 ‘Bom Dia Rio’). Even if you are not familiar with the rigours of the ways in which maqam scales work, you can easily sense how each piece has a clearly defined lyrical structure that the players follow closely. What you can also hear is the ways in which this structure provides opportunities to extemporise on the themes so that the performance of each piece has its own spontaneity.
The melodies that Brahem has composed provide an undulating lyrical platform on which the group builds its sound. The first track, ‘Opening Day’ begins with the theme being introduced on the oud, with bass and drums providing a gentle support, then around 2’ 25, Bates’ offers a delicate piano line which is then picked up and returned by Brahem. Over the next minute or so, piano and oud swirl around each other like a pair of swallows, until the piece resolves into a variation of its original theme which is played by bass, piano and oud in unison. This structure and interplay characterises all of the pieces in this set, whether the main theme is stated on oud, piano or double bass. Across all of this, DeJohnette provides a warm and subtle rhythmic veil that shimmers over the playing.
Throughout the set, Bates continues his exploration of the piano playing at its most delicate, offering an ideal foil for the complex sounds that the oud produces. Holland’s resonant bass grounds each piece, sometimes playing the melody with the other instruments and sometimes providing a gently circular riffs that pulse hypnotically (as on track 7 ‘Persopolis’s mirage’, track 8 ‘The road to Al-Sham’ and most clearly on track 9 'Unexpected outcomes'). The way the three lead instruments work around each other is fascinating. It would be trite (although true) to say that you have a Master Class in each of the instruments here. What is more exciting is that the group has developed a shared musical language that sits across maqam and jazz in ways which draw out and respect the traditions in each musical form.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
