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Marcel Khalife, Jadal, Nagam Records I had every intention to move away from recommending another Middle Eastern CD for this week or one that has the same feel to it....but I'm sorry I can't. This just has to be it. I got the CD about a week ago and literally have listened to it at least three a day (it is a double CD too). What a beauty....Of course, I am partial to Marcel since I just met him at the music retreat I went to a month or so ago (he was one of the instructors there)....his music takes on a whole new meaning when you know the person behind it....what a great guy.. .but that is another topic. The CD is an instumental composition of four movements totaling about 80 minutes for mainly two ouds (the oud being the Arabic half egg-shaped lute with the short, unfretted neck). A bass guitar as well as a riqq (Arabic tambourine that is also a one sided hand held drum) complete the quartet which plays the music. The word Jadal in Arabic means "argument or "bickering" and essentially that is what the two ouds are doing (wished all bickering sounded that way :-) The two ouds (played here by Marcel himself and his cousin (I think) Charbel Rouhana) don't however "bicker" back and forth in a question and response style, which is common in the performance style of solo instruments (taqsim), they mostly play simultaneously following different melodies and the tension between the two becomes the music....just wonderful. The percussion punctuates all this every once in while with just the right amount of rhythm that the music needs to keep the listener totally engulfed in it and waiting for what's to come. Added to the charm is the bass guitar which provide a nice cushion for all of it. Needless to say, this recording would not be as great as it is without the mastership the performers command on their instrument. But beyond mastership, Marcel and Charbel are known to revolutionalize the way the oud is played (they say that there is oud playing and there is Marcel's playing). This is my first encounter hearing a Charbel' performance but, having heard Marcel live and on record, I can say that he plays it like three differe nt instruments wraped in one....the way we've been accustomed to hearing and a couple of others we have not. He makes you realize that we have been unfair to the oud over the years by not using it to its full potential. In this composition you can hear the many different influences that Marcel draws from....classical and folk Arabic repertoire, Western classical and Flamenco music (a couple of blues bars here and there too). Phrases from his own previous compositions are used every once in a while as well . The combination is m...mm...mmm, good :-) |
