Ibrahim Maalouf | News | Ibrahim Maalouf - LIVE TRACKS 2006-2016 (CD/DVD-Set)

Eines muss man den Franzosen lassen: sie haben Geschmack. Und das nicht nur was gute Küche und schöne Frauen angeht. Auch in Sachen Jazz wissen sie was gut ist. z.B. der Trompeter Ibrahim Maalouf, der 1980 in Beirut zur Welt kam, inzwischen aber in seiner Heimat Frankreich ein richtiger Star ist. Seine Alben finden dort in den Pop-Charts statt, seine Konzerte füllen die größten Hallen des Landes.

Die zwischen poppigem und introvertierterem Jazz pendelnde Musik Ibrahim Maaloufs hat sich inzwischen auch in Deutschland herumgesprochen, für sein aktuelles Album “Kalthoum” (Impulse Records) wurde er dieses Jahr bei uns mit dem ECHO Jazz ausgezeichnet.

Perfekt für alle, die Maalouf hierzulande erst seit dem ECHO kennen, ist jetzt das neue CD/DVD-Set "Live Tracks 2006–2016″ mit diversen Höhepunkten seiner Live-Auftritte, die klar machen, warum Maalouf und Band in Frankreich für ausverkaufte Häuser sorgen. Hier lernt man einen Musiker kennen, der Jazz mit Power, Charme und mitreißender Musikalität an den Hörer bringt.

“For years everyone has been asking me when I was going to put out a DVD of me playing live, and my answer was always, ‘There’s one coming out soon, just be patient, it won’t be long…’ Well, I’m happy I can say that we’re finally going to release an enormous box to celebrate ten years of live gigs!”

In 2006, Ibrahim Maalouf went onstage at the New Morning to play solo for the very first time. And now, ten years later (after a thousand concerts in dozens of countries), he’s celebrating a decade-long career onstage with a tour that includes another first: a dozen Zenith concerts — including one in Paris on December 3 — plus a historic date at the Accor Hotels Arena on December 14.

To leave a lasting trace of these great memories is just as important to him, which is why Ibrahim has chosen some of his most outstanding concerts for his fans in several different forms.

“This project has more than ten pieces that have never been out on an album of mine, even though we’ve been playing them onstage for years. Take QABU, for example, the piece with Younn Kamm playing biniou (Breton bagpipes), or JAMAL, a tune that my sister Layla composed. In Marciac there was a young guy in the audience who started playing with us just like that, right in the middle of this piece! There are also incredible versions of TRUE SORRY with musicians from all over… And I must mention LA JAVANAISE, with Juliette Greco at the Olympia, a really magic moment… there has been so much absolute joy.”

In 2014, Ibrahim Maalouf received France’s equivalent of a Grammy Award, a “Victoire de la Musique”, for “Best World Music Album”. The award was for his record “Illusions”, and it made history: for the first time in 29 years, the award had gone to an album that was purely instrumental. And the public discovered a complete artist.

Until Illusions, Ibrahim Maalouf had been known through his collaborations with names like Sting, Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Vincent Delerm, Matthieu Chédid or Lhasa de Sela, to name only a few. The same year, Ibrahim composed and produced an album for the French artist Grand Corps Malade (which went on to reach double gold status), and the more discreet first solo recording by Swedish singer Isabel Sörling, “Something came with the sun”, an album where only a few hundred copies were distributed.

This esoteric aspect of Ibrahim Maalouf’s work continued in 2015, when his original soundtrack for the Jalil Lespert film “Yves Saint Laurent” was nominated for a “César” Award (the equivalent of the Oscar in France). His nomination caught the attention of the public again. Writing for films is a new passion for Ibrahim and takes up more of his time, but even so, he hasn’t abandoned the world of song: for his own label “Mi’ster”, Ibrahim Maalouf has just finished writing, producing and recording a new album for singer Natacha Atlas… 

Ibrahim Maalouf has covered the world since his trilogy “DIA” — three albums released between 2007 and 2011 — and his Miles Davis tribute-album called “WIND” published in 2012. That album incidentally earned Ibrahim a “Victoire du Jazz” Award as Artist of the Year… And that’s only the visible part of the iceberg, in other words, the life in music that he began as a child. Most people have no idea how rare that itinerary has been, beginning with his double music culture and the unique instrument invented by Ibrahim’s father, classical trumpeter Nassim Maalouf: a quarter-tone trumpet that allows musicians to play in the styles that belong to Arab music.

Ibrahim inherited a gem in the history of contemporary music: the acoustic instruments that have been invented in our times are rare indeed. But if his father taught him the Arab art of improvisation, he also gave him an education in classical trumpet technique, so that together, either in Europe or the Middle East, they could play baroque concertos, classical, modern and contemporary pieces. Ibrahim began playing for audiences when he was nine…

By the turn of the millennium, with several International Competition prizes to his credit, not to mention a Diploma from the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique” in Paris, Ibrahim was devoting most of his time to composition and improvisation. He drew inspiration from all his encounters, from hip hop to electronic music via the music of Africa, India, South America and the Balkans, playing with musicians in genres ranging from jazz to hard rock and pop. From his encounters with others emerged his first compositions and creations, which have been released under his own name on record or premiered at festivals as commissions; Ibrahim has written works not only for the latter, but also for dance companies, film producers and established orchestras.

Ibrahim is a tireless composer. His personal repertoire includes numerous works for symphony orchestras, chorales, children’s choirs, other instrumental ensembles… whether with or without his quarter-tone trumpet, Ibrahim continues to search and explore, leaving no door unopened. 

Ibrahim Maalouf was born in Beirut in 1980, when bombs were falling on the Lebanon capital, and his country had been decimated by Civil War. At the age of twelve he thought of becoming an architect, with dreams of freedom to rebuild the Lebanon… but it was through music that Ibrahim would diffuse and transmit his thirst for freedom. Transmission has even become a major element of his work, because each week, he meets with students who are training at Paris conservatories to become professional classical musicians. With Ibrahim, they are learning to break away from codes of performance to discover a free space for expression that is new to them: improvisation.

That free space can be found in every one of his previous albums, collaborations and encounters; his work, together with his numerous projects for the near future, continues to reflect the notion of freedom that inhabits Ibrahim Maalouf.

Red & Black Light (Live At Zénith Nantes Métropole, 2016): http://go.universal-music.de/light/video/420399/

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