Dhafer Youssef - Divine Shadows (2006)

Dhafer Youssef - Divine Shadows (2006)

1. Cantos Lamentos (Dedicated To A. Part)
2. 27th Century Ethos
3. Miel Et Cendres (Dedicated To Mohamed Choukril)
4. In Human Sense
5. Odd Poetry
6. 27th Ethos (Dedicated To Jatinder Thakur)
7. Persona Non Grata
8. Postludium
9. Eleventh Stone
10. Ivresse Divine
11. Un Soupir Eternel (To A Norwegian Girl, Karen Steen Aarset 1931 - 2004)
 

My  Review : 

This isn't my favorite disc from Dhafer Youssef but it's still pretty darn good. He manages to mix in a good selection of styles of jazz in here and some tracks he'll even toss in some catchy beats, like on Persona non grata. For the most part this is farsi or eastern style jazz and it's a great chill out album. Tracks like Eleventh Stone and Odd Poetry are prime examples and take you right to the Eastern side of the World into a beautiful memory forgotten. The tracks flow into one another as well making Dhafer a great producer because if I'm not watching the track list on the stereo sometimes I have no idea what track I'm actually listening to. Very well done and I recommend this to any World Jazz fan! 

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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 

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