Sajrawy, Michel - Yathrib
SKU
OZELLA010
Michel is a Christian Arab who lives in Israel. He's also a monster guitarist and this is a very unusual and very appealing jazz/rock album that blends elements of Arabic modes, scales and instruments with hot fusion. I still love good fusion after all these years, but too much of it is predictable. This was not! Highly recommended! "After extensive studies in Nazareth and London (and quite a few awards later...), Sajrawy is today a furious guitarist, composer, producer and last but not least sound technician, whose musical ambitions are to reconcile the jazz of western culture with the "Makamat" of the Arabic Middle East and Schoenberg’s avant-garde. His regular quartet members are: Valery Lipetz on the E- and double-bass; Armeen Atrash, who masters every nuance between rock and ethnic music styles on his drums, and Darwish Darwish, the newest and youngest member of the band who was declared by the Egyptian Opera to be “the best oud player of the Arab world” in 2003.On Yathrib, they are supported by top-class guest musicians like Kayed Silawi (tabla), Leonid Barshtak (violin, viola), Etamar Doari (jarra) and Bashir Asadi (violin). With all the technical polish, musical virtuosity, compositional extravagance and finesse of the arrangements, Michael Sajrawy's Yathrib never lacks that special something that lets music become a permanent impression: Soul!"