{"id":36725,"date":"2025-05-02T11:16:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T09:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=36725"},"modified":"2025-06-17T09:37:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T07:37:31","slug":"arabic-jazz-and-yazz-ahmed-a-music-between-homelands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/arabic-jazz-and-yazz-ahmed-a-music-between-homelands\/","title":{"rendered":"Arabic Jazz and Yazz Ahmed: A Music Between Homelands"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surveying the history of Arabic jazz, it becomes clear that it has been born out of emigration, cultural exchange and openness to new influences. It has also been a vehicle to showcase the beauty of Arabic civilization, not only the music but also the Islamic spirituality and Sufi philosophy that often underpin it. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gabriel Polley<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yazz Ahmed\u2019s new album <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yazzahmed.bandcamp.com\/album\/a-paradise-in-the-hold\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Paradise in the Hold<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a love letter to one of her two homelands, Bahrain. It is undoubtedly her most ambitious work yet, a decade in the making since she traveled to the Arab Gulf state to compose a suite themed around Siduri, an ancient Mesopotamian demi-goddess who inhabits a paradisical island some scholars identify with Bahrain. The time and care spent is evident in the album\u2019s complexity, 70 minutes in which Ahmed\u2019s jazz trumpet lines pierce wavelike basslines, dreamlike vocals in Arabic and English, and electronic soundscapes.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-7f6060b7b37f685c6c996a8fb84b8472 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:550px; max-height:550px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold (Official Visualiser)\" width=\"600\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IeP0o1U_Y_k?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the start of our conversation, Ahmed apologizes for being a little tired \u2014 the previous night, she performed at London\u2019s legendary jazz club Ronnie Scott\u2019s, arriving home at one in the morning. But my mention of the new album\u2019s reception quickly dispels any lingering bleariness. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect the music to be so loved,\u201d she admits. \u201cI mainly write music that I\u2019m interested in. The response has been astonishing \u2014 it\u2019s given me the confidence to share my stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36916\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36916\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yazzahmed.com\/album\/a-paradise-in-the-hold\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36916\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold.jpg\" alt=\"A Paradise in the Hold Yazz Ahmed\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A-Paradise-in-the-Hold-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36916\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yazz Ahmed&#8217;s new album, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yazzahmed.com\/album\/a-paradise-in-the-hold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>A Paradise in the Hold<\/em><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stories are at the heart of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Paradise in the Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There are myths of Siduri, and Al Naddaha, an Egyptian siren who leads men to a watery grave in the Nile. There are folktales of Bahrain\u2019s sailors who, for centuries, dived to the seabed for pearls, and embarked on epic trading voyages across the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. But there is also a more personal story, Ahmed\u2019s own, of a childhood between two homelands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAs someone of mixed heritage, home feels like two places, but also like I don\u2019t really have a home,\u201d Ahmed explains. \u201cWhen I moved to the UK from Bahrain aged nine in the early 1990s, I had to adapt to British society. A lot of people were, and still are, not so tolerant of people from the Middle East. When I watched films, the bad guys always looked like my Dad. I really downplayed where I was from, and lost my connection with my Bahraini side.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That, thankfully, has long since changed. Now, Ahmed is frequently described as a British-Bahraini musician, a dual identity which makes her stand out on London\u2019s jazz scene. When asked if she\u2019d ever rather swap this label for being known as \u201cjust\u201d a jazz artist, Ahmed gives an answer correlating with the feminist themes in her music. \u201cI embrace it, and I\u2019m very proud of mixing my two cultures together in my music. But also, it helps me avoid a quiet sexism in jazz. There\u2019s a lot of musicians who are labeled \u2018female trumpet player,\u2019 \u2018female saxophone player.\u2019 It\u2019s diminishing of the person. You never hear \u2018male trumpet player.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahmed\u2019s sound is unmistakably Arabic jazz, but it is distinct from much of the genre as will be explored below. While many Arabic jazz artists have taken inspiration from the music of Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed instead draws on Bahraini music. \u201cIt\u2019s a real mixture of different cultures, mainly because of where Bahrain is located,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are influences from South Asia, Iran, East Africa and the rest of the Middle East. There\u2019s a lot of chanting, which makes it quite spiritual, though not necessarily in a religious way. Lyrically, there are songs about seeing the demons of the sea, missing your loved ones.\u201d When asked for recommendations of other Bahraini artists, Ahmed suggests \u201ca band called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/majaz.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Majaz<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They mix jazz, North African music, but the overall sound is very Bahraini \u2014 it\u2019s got the lilting grooves that are very typical in the region, and the particular instruments used in traditional songs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the softly clicking trumpet keys at the opening of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Paradise in the Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the listener is keenly aware not only of the notes Ahmed plays, but also the instrument she plays them on. The trumpet is both Ahmed\u2019s vehicle to explore the intersections of jazz and Arabic music, and something that presents a technical challenge. \u201cThe trickiest thing is to get the quartertones, the \u2018blue notes\u2019 in Arabic music,\u201d Ahmed explains. \u201cI\u2019ve been trained in western harmony, so even though I grew up listening to Arabic music, quartertones are very difficult to play, especially on my trumpet. But I try to bring in scales that you hear in western music, which you also get a lot in Arabic music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBecause the trumpet is close to the technique of singing \u2014 we create notes with throat and tongue positions \u2014 I do my best to think like a singer as well. I use vibrato to add character to long notes, to try to think like Fairuz.\u201d Ahmed laughs at mentioning the legendary Lebanese singer, modestly adding \u201cObviously not as skilled! But I try to emulate that, which helps with the sound.\u201d Considering the influence of jazz composition on Fairuz\u2019s chief songwriters the Rahbani brothers, Ahmed drawing on Fairuz for her trumpet technique demonstrates how Arabic jazz has traveled full circle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>From \u062c\u064e\u0633\u064e\u0651, or jassa to jazz<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mingling of jazz with Arabic music is nothing new. It has been claimed that the term \u201cjazz\u201d itself \u2014 its mysterious linguistic origins much debated \u2014 could derive from Arabic. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/25221548\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writing in 1939<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the British musicologist Henry George Farmer pondered whether<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One might hazard a suggestion that the modern musical term <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jazz<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may be of African origin, being derived from the Arabic <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jaz\u2018<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and that it passed through the Western Sudan into the [\u2026] lands from whence the supply of slaves for America came.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The British free experimentation pianist and electronics composer <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/patthomaspiano.bandcamp.com\/music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pat Thomas<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who combines avant garde jazz with Arab and Sufi traditions, has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/pat-thomas-and-the-arabic-roots-of-jazz-26-iii-2003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">endorsed this theory<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, noting that the Arabic verb \u062c\u064e\u0633\u064e\u0651, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jassa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, means to discover through touch \u2014 a fitting metaphor for jazz\u2019s approach of musically probing at its subject in a way often more tactile than intellectual.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The transatlantic slave trade formed the bridge from part of the Islamic world to the land where jazz would be born. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2021\/2\/10\/muslims-in-america-always-there\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many West African Muslims<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were enslaved and transported to America; some, like Fula Islamic scholar <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalhumanitiescenter.org\/pds\/maai\/community\/text3\/religionomaribnsaid.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar ibn Said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (born c. 1770 in modern Senegal, died 1864 in North Carolina), were highly literate in Arabic. While it\u2019s easy to overstate the direct influence of African culture on early jazz, Arabic language and Islamic culture, as important influences on West African music, are indisputably part of the DNA of the music of the African diaspora in America, including jazz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, the Arab world was sometimes referenced in jazz compositions to evoke a mysterious, faraway land. Hence, one of the earliest jazz standards was the 1921 song \u201cThe Sheik of Araby,\u201d its chorus replicating clich\u00e9s of a primitive and eroticized \u201cOrient\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m the Sheik of Araby,<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your love belongs to me.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At night when you\u2019re asleep,<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Into your tent I\u2019ll creep.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nevertheless, when African-American jazz artists like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jwFmQ-5kqAY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Louis Armstrong<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-HS5h1Erd9g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duke Ellington<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stepped into the role of the titular Sheik, there was a knowing reference to their own ancestral land, geographically closer to the Arab world than the society to which history had carried them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would take until the late 1950s for a real crossover of jazz and Arabic music. African-American musicians became increasingly drawn to \u201cEastern\u201d music and spirituality, both to enrich their musical vocabulary and as an antidote to the racial inequality, soulless consumerism and moral bankruptcy of the Jim Crow-era United States. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2022\/dec\/29\/pharoah-sanders-american-jazz-islam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Numerous jazz musicians converted to Islam<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, from the militant Black nationalism of the Nation of Islam to more inward-looking Sufi and Ahmadiyya sects, and some adopted Arabic names. Historian <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/AfricaSpeaksAmericaAnswers\/mode\/2up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Robin Kelley<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> writes<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For most of these artists, conversion was primarily about worship, self-discipline, and about changing one\u2019s identity, escaping the degradation of being \u201cNegro\u201d in order to become human and, for better or worse, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exotic. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the attraction towards Islam did not always lead these jazz artists to a particular interest in Arab and Islamic musical traditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was double bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927\u20131993) who really pioneered Arabic jazz. While Abdul-Malik claimed that his father was Sudanese, Kelley asserts that Abdul-Malik\u2019s parents emigrated from the Caribbean island Saint Vincent to New York. As a child, Abdul-Malik was exposed to the music of New York\u2019s Arab diaspora. His adoption of an Arabic name accompanied his conversion to Ahmadiyya Islam in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, while playing bass alongside jazz luminaries, Abdul-Malik began studying the oud under Egyptian teachers at the urging of his friend, saxophonist and spiritual jazz progenitor John Coltrane.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abdul-Malik\u2019s first two records, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nV4coeY7s5k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jazz Sahara<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1958) and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VmMR8J7yUEI&amp;t=1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">East Meets West<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1960), represent the earliest examples of Arabic jazz. Abdul-Malik was helped by Arab musicians far from their homelands, who were part of the wave of Arab migration to the US in the early twentieth century. Alongside jazz instrumentation, Abdul-Malik introduces Arabic percussion, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">qanun<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (zither) played by Palestinian-American <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/syrianlebanesediasporasound.blogspot.com\/2021\/06\/jack-ghanaim-oudist-and-qanunist.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack Ghanaim<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, violin by Lebanese-American <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/canary-records.bandcamp.com\/album\/he-gives-from-the-heart-a-retrospective-of-the-arab-american-violinist-and-composer-1916-65\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naim Karacand<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and of course his own oud. Abdul-Malik\u2019s subsequent recordings feature less Arab influence, though on tracks such as the playful \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7kPrfmqOaTM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oud Blues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d he continued to mix musical worlds. Despite declining health, Abdul-Malik continued to take oud lessons with the Palestinian maestro Simon Shaheen until days before his death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arabic jazz was further explored by a New York bandleader with whom Abdul-Malik toured Latin America in the early 1960s. Unlike jazz musicians who had previously flirted with Arabic music or Islamic spirituality, Herbie Mann was not African-American, but of Eastern European Jewish origin. On his 1967 album <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mwFCT_fUXRRdcLPYbKbIE9OCevXBdQeqg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Impressions of the Middle East<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, his band placed jazz musicians including the late legendary jazz-funk vibraphonist Roy Ayers, alongside Egyptian <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">qanun<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> player <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/syrianlebanesediasporasound.blogspot.com\/2021\/10\/mohammed-el-akkad-king-of-kanun.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mohammad Elakkad<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (husband of the Jewish Egyptian actor and singer Souad Zaki), and Armenian-American clarinetist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/armenianweekly.com\/2024\/11\/20\/a-heartfelt-blessing-for-hachig-kazarians-western-armenian-music-from-asia-minor-to-the-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hachig Kazarian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and oud player <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hyetimesmusic.com\/2019\/02\/11\/chick-the-blue-collar-musician\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chick Ganimian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. While the record\u2019s first side features Mann\u2019s trademark accessible jazz sound adorned with some Orientalist flourishes, its second side showcases a much richer excursion into the music of the immigrant artists\u2019 homelands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until the late 1960s, Arabic jazz had been largely an American phenomenon, with non-Arab musicians enlisting Arab immigrants\u2019 help. Instrumental in creating a jazz sound indigenous to the Arab world was a brigadier general in the Egyptian army. The cosmic jazz supremo Sun Ra and his band the Arkestra made <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/spaceisplacelive00szwe\/page\/292\/mode\/2up?q=%22salah+ragab%22&amp;view=theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an impromptu stop in Egypt in 1971<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, after a European tour. When their instruments failed to clear customs before their concert dates, Salah Ragab \u2014 the musical director of the Egyptian military, and a jazz drummer himself \u2014 loaned the visiting band replacements. This was the start of an enduring friendship, with strong inspiration from Ra on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/salahragab.bandcamp.com\/album\/egyptian-jazz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ragab\u2019s own recordings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, big band jazz-meets-interplanetary psychedelia-meets-Arabic orchestration. During the 1970s, jazz-influenced sounds, from Lebanese disco to Sudanese funk, became popular across the Arab world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the 1990s, musicians from the Middle East and North Africa were frequently collaborating with western jazz artists. A particular inspiration to Yazz Ahmed is Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil\u2019s 1992 album <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/rabihabou-khalil.bandcamp.com\/album\/blue-camel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blue Camel<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cThat was the first time I heard jazz and Arabic music mixed together,\u201d she reveals. \u201cIt featured my favorite trumpet player and composer, Kenny Wheeler. That\u2019s how I discovered it, from my love of jazz. Discovering this record, I was like \u2018Wow!\u2019 It blew my mind. I didn\u2019t think I could mix these two types of music together \u2014 it was incredible. That album really started my journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36920\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36920\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-36920\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Yazz-Ahmed-band-with-orchestra-courtesy-yazzahmed.com_.jpg\" alt=\"The Yazz Ahmed band with orchestra courtesy yazzahmed.com\" width=\"1000\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Yazz-Ahmed-band-with-orchestra-courtesy-yazzahmed.com_.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Yazz-Ahmed-band-with-orchestra-courtesy-yazzahmed.com_-600x402.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Yazz-Ahmed-band-with-orchestra-courtesy-yazzahmed.com_-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/The-Yazz-Ahmed-band-with-orchestra-courtesy-yazzahmed.com_-768x515.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yazz Ahmed band with orchestra (courtesy yazzahmed.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4><b><br \/>\nGrowing canon of Arabic jazz<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, Arabic jazz is well established, with its own stars and subgenres. Iraqi-American trumpet player and vocalist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/amirelsaffartworivers.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amir ElSaffar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has won critical acclaim for blending Arabic <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">maqamat<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> musical scales since his 2007 debut <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two Rivers<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Also cited by Ahmed as a contemporary influence is French-Lebanese trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf, whose reworking of Egyptian diva Umm Kulthoum\u2019s classic \u201cAlf Laila wa Laila,\u201d the 2015 album <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nqRg_7uxhiY&amp;list=PLyI-1N0S-GHlFXnm2J53-EtNKYQY-wvUJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kalthoum<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a masterpiece. Bringing a very different sound is Na\u00efssam Jalal, a French-Syrian flautist whose album <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/naissamjalal.bandcamp.com\/album\/healing-rituals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Healing Rituals<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, released in 2023, is an aptly titled spiritual journey through a more pensive side of jazz. Lebanese band SANAM displays the influence of avant garde free jazz on 2023\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sanambeirut.bandcamp.com\/album\/aykathani-malakon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aykathani Malakon<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The output of Palestinian musician and sound artist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/albayan.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dirar Kalash<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> moves further toward free experimentation, sometimes shocking in its visceral sonic representation of the racial oppression afflicting Palestinians and African-Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Paradise in the Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a worthy addition to this growing canon of Arabic jazz. On the title track, the flowing horn improvization and electric piano are reminiscent of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bitches Brew<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">-era Miles Davis. \u201cDancing Barefoot\u201d shifts between time signatures, with much of the instrumentation falling away to leave a hauntingly beautiful interplay of vocal and trumpet. The standout \u201cThough My Eyes Go to Sleep, My Heart Does Not Forget You,\u201d which features handclaps in complex polyrhythms over grooving bass and brass, sounds like a jazz band jamming at a women\u2019s celebration during an Arab wedding. Samples of Bahraini folk singing are to the fore in \u201cInto the Night\u201d and parts of \u201cTo the Lonely Sea,\u201d blended seamlessly with electronica and dreamlike melodies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surveying the history of Arabic jazz, it becomes clear that it has been born out of emigration, cultural exchange and openness to new influences. It has also been a vehicle to showcase the beauty of Arabic civilization, not only the music but also the Islamic spirituality and Sufi philosophy that often underpin it. The musical, spiritual and political dimensions of Arabic jazz, as the genre has developed over almost seven decades, are clearly appreciated by Yazz Ahmed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m trying to do my part, as a musician who has a voice,\u201d Ahmed says at the end of our interview. \u201cI try to champion Bahraini women in particular, and show that Arab women don\u2019t just do the diva thing \u2014 they play and create music that\u2019s hard-hitting, not just stereotypically beautiful. It\u2019s an ongoing journey, and I hope I\u2019m opening people\u2019s minds. Jazz music comes from struggle and freedom of expression, and that\u2019s always something I always try to remember. I do my best to keep that going, and to tell my story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone who listens to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Paradise in the Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> knows that she has succeeded. In this era of rising xenophobia in the west and colonial violence in the Arab world, Arabic jazz should also be seen as a valuable cultural form for challenging prejudice and overcoming misconceptions. It is truly music for the times in which we live.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arabic jazz challenges stereotypes amid rising xenophobia in the West and colonial violence in the Arab 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