Rabih Abou-Khalil

The musical traditions from the Arabic world are fused with jazz improvisation and Western european traditional techniques by Lebanese-born oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil. The CMJ SONGS Report observed that Abou-Khalil provides “consistently sought to generate common ground between your Arab music mileau of his root base and the even more global musical globe of today.” Down Defeat praised Abou-Khalil’s music as “a distinctive hybrid that effectively spans the globe of traditional Arabic music and jazz.” Although he discovered to try out the oud, a fretless, Lebanese lute, as a young child, Abou-Khalil temporarily turned to the traditional flute, which he examined on the Academy of Music after shifting to Munich, Germany, through the Lebanese Civil Battle in 1978. So that they can explore new methods to play Arabic music, he came back towards the oud and begun to incorporate methods more often performed on jazz electric guitar. Within the early-’90s, Abou-Khalil was commissioned by Southwest German radio to create two pieces which were debuted within a performance using the Kronos String Quartet on the Stuttgart Jazz Summit in 1992, and documented using the Belanescu Quartet four years afterwards. Abou-Khalil spent some time working with an assortment of Arabic, Indian, and American jazz music artists, including alto saxophonist Sonny Lot of money, body drummer and percussionist Glen Valez, conga participant Milton Cardona, harmonica ace Howard Levy, and bassists Glen Moore and Steve Swallow.