Abu Nawas Rhapsody

Listening to Abu Nawas Rhapsody is an experience that is difficult to describe. This can be said of some truly remarkable artistic achievements, yet we often try to do so. What is most important to say is that this album is something special.Jazz may be America's art form, but it is also America's gift to the world, and many artists from around the world have taken it to unique places. Dhafer Youssef is among them. The Tunisian singer and oud player is rooted in jazz, but not exclusively so, and like Anouar Brahem, he combines his influences, through jazz, into something that is beyond words. While perhaps not the most virtuosic oud master in history, he is quite skilled. He is endlessly creative, though, and his voice is otherworldly, capable of such a range of tones that you must hear it to understand it. What makes Abu Nawas Rhapsody so special is that his talents are combined with the best possible accompanists. Most importantly here, that means pianist, Tigran Hamasyan, and percussionist Mark Giuliana. Hamasyan is a shining beacon on the jazz scene for his mastery of time and rhythm, along with his ability to bounce between jazz and other styles, and Giuliana... well. Dhafer Youssef is an extraordinarily talented musician, but to produce a work like this, he needs the best. He has the best. Everything needs to come together for something like Abu Nawas Rhapsody.Little can prepare you for the first experience of hearing it. The dynamic range, Hamasyan's concepts of time and rhythm, Giuliana's fills... and then there is Dhafer. His oud work is interesting, but to repeat, there are more virtuosic players. His voice, though. His voice. The average music fan is accustomed to singing as conveyor of lyrics. This obscures the concept of voice as instrument. Within jazz, there are a variety of singing techniques that emphasize voice as instrument, to say nothing of opera. Youssef's voice moves from the entrancing whisper to a kind of power that sounds inhuman, as in, you have to do a double-take to remind yourself that, yes, that is a person, singing. I love his voice. I neither know nor care what he is singing. It is irrelevant. The experience of hearing is voice, as it plays against Hamasyan's piano, against an oud... this is otherworldy music. And whatever world this is, is something special.Jazz can reach this kind of power, rooted in gospel or blues, and most jazz fans understand the feeling of listening to Mingus channeling gospel-blues to a kind of ecstatic joy, but Youssef accomplishes the task from his own Tunisian musical traditions. And it is somehow something deeper. This is stunning music. As in, you will be stunned, and unable to speak or act upon hearing it, until you have time to think and understand what you have heard. This is genius. That's it. It's just genius.Anouar Brahem is awesome. I love listening to oud players touch on jazz. Driss El Maloumi... hey, Sandy Bull was doing it in the '60s. Dhafer Youssef, though, did something beyond words. How much praise is required here before a reader just gets the album?

Many of us have been in musical anthropology courses where we were introduced to the instruments and music of non-western cultures. We suffered through the yowling, the plinking and plunking, atonal and the arhythmic. And with a bit of luck, we were excused from the exercise in 13 weeks or less. Flush all of that out of your head. 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. When I first opened the booklet, I thought, "What the ... ?" But now that I've heard the CD several times, I cannot think of anything more appropriate, more just. Everything about this project is done for you, to invite you to the table, to welcome you as a member of the congregation of the servants of The Beloved. Surrender. Buy the CD. And then surrender again.

An amazing musician and singer with an incredible gift for turning his nasal-head sound into a soaring instrument! I really like his musical interpretation - fresh and yet somehow with ancient roots.

I've just returned from a trip to Istanbul. While I was in music/bookstore this CD was on and even on a short listen to maybe one song I realized that I was on to something special. It's just plain good music that ranges from the sublime and mediative to some really good jazz Since the artist is from Tunisia it is hardly surprising that there are some musical instruments and melodies that aren't commonly found in a western recording studio but to try to stereotype the music is a mistake. I'm here to buy another CD by this artist who I know nothing about other than he's capable of making me smile. If I weren't in that store at that time I would never have heard of this artist and would have likely never have had the pleasure of knowing his music. Travel indeed can be enriching.

I won't add much to the reviews of this album as it has already been said, rather this is a comment on Dhafer in general. if you love real music away from the repetitive norm, and you are not afraid to explore new, beautiful and sometimes disturbing territory then there currently is no better musician (just check his back catalogue for the enviable list of collaborators). Abu Nawas Rhapsody is sublime. What are you waiting for?

I just listened and it's a wonderful work.., full of sentiment and good music, transmit very good vibration and magic sound, I like it 😊

SUPER

Brilliant CD, the range of his vocals and the feeling, texture and energy of the compositions are truly breathtaking....and of course the band's playing is inspiring. A musical journey that lights all the senses.Iain, Edinburgh. When is he coming to Scotland.??

Lo segundo mejor que uno puede hacer es comprar sus discos, lo primero es verlo en directo. Dhafer Youssef o el músico con alma viajera. El curioso que busca nuevos horizontes sin olvidar sus raíces. El cantante de voz virtuosa el instrumentista preciso y precioso.Cualquier disco del tunecino es un acierto asegurado.Ya lo tengo en CD y cuando lo vuelva a sacar en vinilo volveré a comprarlo.