YATHRIB – fertile oasis, about 200 km land inwards east of the Red Sea . Surrounded by the wild foothills of the Hijaz massif. Home of Arab and Jewish tribes. Melting pot of these cultures.
YATHRIB – Debut album of MICHEL SAJRAWYS, of a man and virtuoso guitarist, who like no other unites seemingly insurmountable differences with his vita and with his music..
YATHRIB – These are Jews, Muslims and Christians, who together create a sound experience, a music, completely at ease and far removed from any issues of faith or differences – be it on stage or in the studio – who will surely remain unparalleled for a long time to come.
MICHEL SAJRAWY – was born and grew up in Nazareth , Galilee, in the north of Israel . As a Christian „Arab“ with an Israeli passport, he still feels mostly like a Palestinian. In an environment bubbling with conflicts, MICHEL SAJRAWY begins his musical education already as a child – for him the best possibility from the start to take a good look at the diversity and the inevitable conflicts involved in the extremely different cultural and religious circles.
Since then, for MICHEL SAJRAWY music has been a gift and a medium of expression for total being – the source of all knowledge.
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, and this in the most exciting way possible, driving this highly characteristic tone colour to perfection.
His fellow musicians, who MICHEL SAJRAWY unites for YATHRIB on stage and in the studio, deliver the tremendously schimmering presence of his compositions and arrangements through their virtuosity and sensitivity in their playing together, as well as with their culturally contrary roots.
His regular quartet members are: Valery Lipetz on the E- and double-bass; Ameen 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, MICHEL SAJRAWY'S YATHRIB never lacks that special something that lets music become a permanent impression: Soul!
Very, very carefully and yet powerfully, guitar and oud approach a sensitive topic with „Father“, without getting tied down in sentimentality…
„Spiritual Oasis“ kidnaps, seduces, lets desire begin to sprout – and never denies that „Oasis“ at the same time implies barrenness and loneliness.
With „In Memory of Om Kalthoum“ the musicians manage to vividly recall the life and career of an exceptional musician whose exact year of birth was never known, whose career began in Cairo in the twenties and first ended with her death in 1975…
If Om Kalthoum enchants with her voice – Yathrib put us under a spell with their instruments and the incomparable energy of their music!
YATHRIB, electrifying and saturated with vibrating emotion, full to the brim with life!
MICHEL SAJRAWY– Musical Concept
Sajrawy's musical ambition is to reconcile the jazz of western culture with the „Makamat“ of the Middle East, and Schoenberg's avant-garde, in order to develop, and then perfect a completely new sound.
„Makamat“ – these are „oriental“ composition forms, rooted in ancient traditions, consisting of very special melodic lines based on quarter note steps – an exceptional musical vocabulary. Each one of these „Makam“ has a distinctive sequence of notes in a specific range, with one or more tonics and a melodic phrasing unique unto itself.
Beyond this, each of these „Makam“ has its very own ethos attributed to it, associating various and very different moods. For example, in the ninth century Safi el-Din gave every hour of the day its own Makam.
Today, there are about sixty „customary“ Makamat in the Arabian world. An enormous challenge for interpreters of these compositions – the Makamat, are all relatively similar in structure; the art lies in making the subtle differences distinguishable and enabling the audience to experience their vibrancy.
This requires an explicitly sensitive ear from the musicians, as well as virtuoso mastery of the instruments.
As a rule, oriental guitarists equip their instruments with additional frets in order to be able to create the quarter note steps necessary for “Makamat”. Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to a lack of precision in the intonation:
The quarter note steps called for here are NOT exact quarter intervals – in ascending succession they are a little bit higher – accordingly, in descending succession they have to sound a little bit “darker”…and for this the musician alone is responsible.
Michel Sajrawy tackles this difficulty with his own unconventional solution:
Having on the one hand tried out the limited suitability of additional frets, he nonetheless rejects the usual use of “fretless guitars”. They do offer complete freedom of intonation, but according to Sajrawy, can only be a compromise for the sound as well as the character. They just don't do justice to the sound he really wants!
Sajrawy creates the desired quarter note steps by bending the strings. A very unusual, if not unique technique for interpreting “Makamat”.
It spices the original sound with an almost “bluesy” note, and does not require any additional alterations to the instrument.
All that can be heard is the virtuoso result of the ingenious interaction of fingers and ear.
Ozella Music Dagobert Böhm phone: +49 (0) 52 51 - 38 509 mail@ozellamusic.com www.ozellamusic.com
|
