Anouar Brahem, «Blue Maqams»

Thursday melodies - Karim Karkeni

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Last autumn, the Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem released an album full of softness and roundness, Blue Maqams. He will be in Switzerland on April 11 and 12, respectively in Zurich (Tonhalle) and Basel (Musical Theater). Bewitchment guaranteed.

The album was in stores to celebrate its sixtieth birthday, give or take a week. A Friday the 13th (October), to add a little more magic and mystery. We wondered how it would come back to us, after the fabulous double album Souvenances, released in 2014. It took him a long time to compose it, so many elements were jostling in his head and chest after the revolution in Tunisia; it was the same for this new opus.

A new musician for this album

The jazzman decided to continue to give as much importance to the piano, but to change musician - François Couturier had been weaving wonders alongside him for years, Le pas du chat noir being perhaps, in this respect, the most emblematic. Brahem had trouble finding his man, until his producer Manfred Eicher told him about Django Bates.

It was exactly the fingering and subtlety needed to envelop the master of ceremonies' oud. And then, after twenty years without a double bass, Anouar Brahem was keen to reunite with Dave Holland, with whom he had enjoyed working on Thimar, released in 1998.

Spells and boats

The first piece, Opening day, unfolds with an inviting spirit. First we hear the strings of the oud, then those of Dave Holland; then, very discreetly, the percussion of Jack DeJohnette, before the keyboard of Django Bates invites itself into this velvet sequence.

By the artist's own admission, the drums can come as a surprise in this music, which is in many ways akin to chamber music, but he wanted to take up the challenge, and he knew that the musicians' finesse would solve the problem.

Indeed, over the course of nine inspired and inspiring compositions, the quartet caresses us in the direction of the sails, perhaps those of Noah's ark that we'll soon have to invent for ourselves, with this rain that never ceases to knock us down.

Write to the author : karim@lemurduson.ch

Photo credit: © Marco Borggreve