Egypt, Syria and Lebanon invite themselves in this edition with the young Franco-Syrian group Sarāb, in love with Arab classics, poetry (Darwich, Damasio), jazz, rock and pop. And we invite Mario Choueiry, for his expertise within the English label We Want Sounds on vinyl reissues of great classics of Arab music by Fairuz, Abdel Hali Hafez or Farid El Atrache.
Born in Beirut in 1969, Mario Choueiry has lived in Paris since pre-adolescence. After studying economics and political science – and passionate about music – he began his career in the record industry at the distributor Media 7 in the classic service. He then joined the Erato label before becoming, for more than ten years, the international representative of the EMI Arabia label. Being bilingual French / Arabic, he takes care of making known the vast catalog of Arabic music (Fairuz, Oum Kalthoum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Ziad Rahbani) outside the Arab world. Mario resumed his studies at the Ecole du Louvre. Diploma in hand, he joined the teams of the Arab World Institute in 2012 where he was appointed project manager under the chairmanship of Jack Lang. He is a member of the scientific committees of the Arab Divas and Hip-Hop exhibitions from the Bronx to the Arab streets. He is curator of the exhibition Picasso and the Arab avant-gardes. As an expert in Arabic music, Mario brings his knowledge to Wewantsounds on the series of Arabic music vinyl reissues of which he is the curator and for which he writes most of the liner notes.
Then we receive the group SARABA in the #SessionLive new album Qawalebese Tape.
SARĀB is a fanciful adventure that brings together the fury of contemporary jazz and the infinite richness of traditional music and texts from the Middle East. Dreaming with jazz harmonies, exulting with the energy of rock, dancing with the rhythms of the world, the six musicians sublimate the depth of traditions to deliver to men the enchanting poetry of these eternal melodies.
Born from the meeting between the Franco-Syrian singer Climène Zarkan and the guitarist Baptiste Ferrandis, Sarāb —mirage in Arabic—is a musical edifice that combines rock, modern jazz and traditional Arabic music that plays with borders and genres. The duo quickly transformed into a six-headed creature, where each became essential to musical creation. Robinson Khoury’s trombone binds with the voice, and navigates between oriental and European scales, between ornamentations and a personal technique. It is with the trombone and singing that we find the horizontality of Arabic music, turned upside down by the rich harmonic verticality of the guitar and the piano. Sarāb plays between tradition and today’s music.
« Sarāb’s music is nourished by a lively, indomitable energy, it summons our senses to enter into active meditation or meditation action or meditate, premeditate… I don’t know… where are we? ? In a concert hall ? In our living room ? Among the dunes of an endless but suddenly familiar desert? » S. Mariani.
Titles performed at the big studio
– As well as, Live RFI
– King Rastfrom the album
– Zourouni, Live RFI.
Line up : Climène Zarkan : chant ; Baptiste Ferrandis : guitar; Robinson Khoury : trombone ; Paul Berne : battery and Timothy Robert: basse.
Son Mathias Taylor et al Fabien Mugneret.
►album Qawalebese Tape (released March 31, 2023).
Upcoming concerts 2023
– Babel MusicXP 23 mars, Marseille
– New Morning 12 avril, Paris
– Jazz under the apple trees 13 May, Coutances
– Jazz in Vienna 13 July, Vienna.