anouar brahem - kashf
Tribute to Anouar Brahem
Anouar Brahem (transliteration of the Arabic أنور ابراهم) was born on October 20, 1957 in the town of Halfouine in the Medina of Tunis, Tunisia. He is an oud player and composer, who is widely acclaimed as an innovator in his field. Performing primarily for a jazz audience, he fuses Arab classical music, folk music and jazz and has been recording since at least 1991, after becoming prominent in his own country in the late 1980s.
Encouraged by his father, an engraver and printer, but also a music lover, Brahem began his studies of the oud at the age of 10, at the Tunis National Conservatory of Music, where his principal teacher was the oud master, Ali Sriti. An exceptional student, by the age of 15 Brahem was playing regularly with local orchestras. At 18 he decided to devote himself entirely to music. For four consecutive years Ali Sriti received him at home every day and continued to convey to him the modes, subtleties and secrets of Arab classical music through the traditional master / disciple relationship, particularly in the intricacies of the Maqam system, and taqsim.
Little by little, Brahem began to broaden his field of listening to include other musical expressions from around the Mediterranean, Iran and India, before jazz began to command his attention. According to Brahem, "I enjoyed the change of environment, and discovered the close links that exist between all these musics".
Brahem increasingly distanced himself from an environment largely dominated by entertainment music. He sought to do more than simply perform at weddings, and did not want to join one of the many existing ensembles, in which the oud was little more than an accompanying instrument for singers. Passion for his vocation as an oudist led him to give first place to his preferred instrument of Arab music, and to offer the Tunisian public ensemble and solo concerts. He began writing his own compositions and gave a series of solo concerts in various cultural venues. He also issued a self-produced cassette, on which he was accompanied by percussionist Lassaad Hosni.
A loyal public of connoisseurs gradually rallied around him and the Tunisian press gave enthusiastic support. Reviewing one of Brahem's first performances, critic Hatem Touil wrote: "this talented young player has succeeded not only in overwhelming the audience but also in giving non-vocal music in Tunisia its claim to nobility while at the same time restoring the fortunes of the lute. Indeed, has a lutenist produced such pure sounds or concretised with such power and conviction, the universality of musical experience."
In 1981, he left for Paris in search of new vistas. This enabled him to meet musicians from a variety of genres. He remained there as a composer for four years, notably for Tunisian cinema and theatre. He collaborated with Maurice Béjart for his ballet "Thalassa Mare Nostrum" and with Gabriel Yared as lutist for Costa Gavras’ film "Hanna K".
In 1985 he returned to Tunis, where an invitation to perform at the Carthage festival provided him with the opportunity to bring together for "Liqua 85", outstanding figures of Tunisian and Turkish music, and French jazz. These included Abdelwaheb Berbech, the Erköse brothers, François Jeanneau, Jean-Paul Celea, François Couturier and others. The success of the project earned Brahem Tunisia's Grand National Prize for Music.
In 1987, he was appointed director of the Musical Ensemble of the City of Tunis (EMVT). Instead of keeping the large existing orchestra, he broke it up into formations of variable size, giving it new orientations: one year in the direction of new creations, and the next more towards traditional music. The main productions were "Leïlatou Tayer" (1988) and "El Hizam El Dhahbi" (1989) in line with his early instrumental works and following the main axis of his research. In these compositions, he remained essentially within the traditional modal space, although he transformed its references and upset its hierarchy. Following a natural disposition towards osmosis, which has absorbed the Mediterranean, African and Far-Eastern heritages, he also touched from time to time upon other musical expressions: European music, jazz and other form
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