Jazz of the Maghreb and the Near East

Movement · 1980s → · Tunis, Beirut, Rabat, Munich, Paris · Hybrids and world

Arab musicians, often oud players, cross Arabic music with jazz: the Lebanese Rabih Abou-Khalil, settled in Munich in 1978, then the Tunisians Anouar Brahem and Dhafer Youssef, the Moroccan Majid Bekkas, the French-Lebanese Ibrahim Maalouf.

What is still debated

Start date chosen at Rabih Abou-Khalil's first album (1981); the scene is more diffuse.

Where it comes from

• ECM and European jazz

What it gave rise to or influenced

• French jazz

Artists

• Ibrahim Maalouf (1980, trumpet)
• Dhafer Youssef (1967, oud, vocals)
• Majid Bekkas (guembri, oud, guitar, vocals)
• Rabih Abou-Khalil (1957, oud, flute)
• Anouar Brahem (1957, oud)

Tracks to start with

• True Sorry — Ibrahim Maalouf (2014)
• Red & Black Light — Ibrahim Maalouf (2015)
• Beirut — Ibrahim Maalouf (2011)
• The Epistle of Love (Pt. 1) — Dhafer Youssef (2025)
• Aicha — Majid Bekkas (2020)
• Blue Camel — Rabih Abou-Khalil (1992)
• Le pas du chat noir — Anouar Brahem (2002)

Sources

• EN : Rabih Abou-Khalil

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