Anouar Brahem

Anouar Brahem ( born October 20, 1957 in Tunis Halfaouine, Tunisia) is a composer and a virtuoso on the Arabian oud oud.

Biographical

Anouar Brahem began studying the oud at the age of ten years at the National Conservatory in Tunis ( Conservatoire national de musique de Tunis ) in the old master Ali Sriti. Fifteen- year-old he was already playing in local orchestras and at eighteen he decided to entirely committed to making music his profession. From his teacher Ali Sriti, he received further private lessons in classical Arab music. Little by little Brahem extended his musical horizons, was interested in the Indian and Iranian music and especially jazz.

The purely traditional Arabic music that was played primarily for entertainment and at weddings and in his instrument only fulfilled the function of supporting singers, did not satisfy him in the long run. He began writing his own compositions and gave a series of solo concerts, which found little by a positive response in public and the press.

From his linking of the different modal characteristics of the Eastern ( Mashreq ) and Western ( Maghreb ) Arabic musical traditions with complex improvisations Brahem's vision of music was far from nostalgic orientalisms that currently characterize the musical work in this area partially.

His urge for new experiences led him to Paris in 1981, where he met many musicians of different genres. Here he remained four years, has composed extensively for the Tunisian cinema and theater. Among other things, he wrote the music for Maurice Béjart's ballet Thalassa Mare Nostrum and Costa -Gavras ' film Hanna K.

In 1985 he returned to Tunis. An invitation to Carthage Festival brought him together with famous musicians of the French jazz scene and further from the Tunisian and Turkish music. With them, the project 85, with whom he won the Tunisian National Prize for Music was born.

In the following years he was involved in various projects. That brought him back to his musical roots. With a small ensemble, a Takht as the original form of the traditional orchestra, in which each instrumentalist acted both as a soloist and as an improvising musician, he wanted the spirit and intimacy of classical Arab music chamber to breathe fresh life. He had 1988 on the Carthage Festival once again a resounding success.

After a tour of the U.S. and Canada, he met producer Manfred Eicher in 1990, with whom he has since been continuously worked and released all of their albums on the force as audiophile label ECM. It also made recordings with numerous renowned jazz musicians, including saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, accordionist Richard Galliano and Jean -Louis Matinier and percussionist Lassad Hosni.

Anouar Brahem is an internationally renowned musician and composer, which assembles especially Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences and elements of jazz. In 2010 he received an Echo Jazz in the category of other instruments.

Style - criticism in citations

"That Anouar Brahem's music is difficult to categorize, honors his artistic career. As a musician who can not be pigeonholed, seem to apply all possible definitions to world music to jazz, he has created an unusual for his musical environment freedom of expression. between hits and bloated giant orchestras is for a soloist seemingly little space. yet with patience and perseverance it is Brahem succeeded his instrument, which seemed limited only to the role of the monitoring instrument, to create a niche. "

"I consider myself neither as a jazz musician even as a jazz composer. I personally do not define myself in terms of labels. As a manifestation of the record industry there is this phenomenon of course a long time, ultimately, so that citizens find their way handset. At first glance, it would amaze me to determine that my music is cataloged as jazz, but do not interfere with me doing that really. Under World Music I want my CDs but can not find enqueued, which for me is a category that lacks any seriousness and says nothing at all. "

" Acurately Brahem's new quartet is that this music in all its sounds neither new nor fresh posh balanced beauty. Regarded as idiom, it is extended by some world music accents, hard on the planned target fulfillment of the clichés that the sound of .. ECM Records be blamed for forty years., without that they had ever applied to the width of its production. "

" Music, miraculously oscillating between ethnic influences from different directions, between a composed and free continuing. Previous work Brahem for film and theater forms the basis for rich in associations and interpretations in order to match changing constellations of French, Arabic and Scandinavian musicians. "

Discography (selection)

• Anouar Brahem: Ennaoura el achiqua 1987
• Anouar Brahem: Leïlatou Tayer. The Music Ensemble of Tunis 1988
• Anouar Brahem: Barzakh. With Béchir Selmi (violin), Lassad Hosni ( percussion). ECM 1432, 1991.
• Anouar Brahem Conte de l' incroyable amour. With Barbaros Erköse ( clarinet), Kudsi Erguner ( Nay ), Lassad Hosni ( Bendix, darbuka ). ECM 1457th 1992.
• Jan Garbarek: Madar. With Jan Garbarek ( tenor & soprano saxophone), Ustad Shaukat Hussain ( tabla). ECM 1515th 1994.
• Anouar Brahem: Khomsa. With Richard Galliano (accordion), François Couturier ( piano, synthesizer ), Jean Marc Larché (soprano saxophone), Béchir Selmi (violin), Palle Danielsson ( bass), Jon Christensen (drums). ECM 1561st 1995.
• Anouar Brahem: Thimar. With John Surman (bass clarinet and soprano saxophone ), Dave Holland ( bass). ECM 1641. 1998.
• Anouar Brahem: Astrakhan cafe. With Barbaros Erköse ( clarinet), Lassad Hosni ( Bendix, darbouka ). ECM 1718. 2000.
• Anouar Brahem: ' Charmediterranéen. With the Orchestre National de Jazz and Gianluigi Trovesi ( piccolo clarinet, alto saxophone). ECM 1828th 2002.
• Anouar Brahem Le pas du chat noir. With François Couturier ( piano ), Jean -Louis Matinier (accordion). ECM 1792. 2002.
• Anouar Brahem: Le Voyage de Sahar. With François Couturier ( piano ), Jean -Louis Matinier (accordion). ECM 1915. 2006.
• Anouar Brahem: The Astounding Eyes Of Rita. With Klaus Gesing (bass clarinet), Björn Meyer ( bass), Khaled Yassine ( darbouka, Bendix ). ECM 2075th 2009.