Dhafer Youssef - Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010)

Dhafer Youssef - Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010)

1.Sacré 4:59
2. Les Ondes Orientales 9:09
3. Khamsa 7:40
4. Interl’oud 1:44
5. Louage (Odd Elegy) 4:52
6. Ya Hobb 4:07
7. Shatha (intro) 2:08
8. Shatha 5:36
9. Mudamatan 4:54
10. Sabaa 5:00
11.Sura 6/05
12. Profane 4:38

 My Review : 

If you're at all inclined to the sort of music that invites you to a simultaneously intensely personal and all embracing communal meditative experience, buy this CD immediately. Ten or twenty years ago, I surrendered to the Middle Eastern magic of a group called Night Ark. This seems to be the next chapter, the next semester in the course. At its core, it is a small jazz ensemble: percussion, bass, guitar (in this case, 'oud) and vocalist. But here is a group that is deft at the long-time tradition of middle eastern music, predating the development of American jazz by centuries, if not millenia. And it is highly skilled, highly virtuosic improvisation that is focused away from the ego and toward the adoration of The Beloved, Love personified, if you will. I have only to add a comment on the liner notes. In the spirit of the music, in the spirit of the inspiration of the ensemble, the notes for each song are presented as a spectacular, one-page painting by a contemporary watercolorist 

Download