New Music From Marcel Khalife on Calabash Music

Taqasim

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Please note that due to longer song length, each track has the price of $2.97. For many years, my music has enjoyed a special, and especially gratifying, association with the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. Our respective corpora have grown to be reminiscent of each other, so that the name of each of the twain, instantly and without reflection, would evoke the name of the other. How very appropriate, for all of my musical milestones that punctuate my thirty-year career, beginning with “Promises of the Storm” and culminating with “The Doves Fly,” are graced with the lyricism and poignancy that are uniquely Darwishian. Even before we got to know each other personally, I felt as though Darwish’s poetry, with its divine assertiveness and prophetic cadences, had been revealed to me and for me. I could nearly savor his “mother’s bread” that has become iconic to his readers. I could feel the eyes of his “Rita” as deeply as I could feel the pain that his “Joseph” suffered at the hands of his treacherous siblings, and I could identify with his passport, which I fancied carried my picture, just as personally as I could identify with his olive grove, his sand, and his sparrows. They were all, at a personal level, mine.

I specifically intended this set of Taqasim (“Improvisations”) as a tribute and an expression of fidelity from Marcel Khalifé to Mahmoud Darwish. Some may wonder, as they listen to Taqasim, about the meaning of this dedication, for no part can be found in the score for the poetry of Darwish or for my own voice. Yet, nowhere have his poetry and my voice been as intensely
present as in this work. With this work, I have overcome my timidity, giving way to a newfound daring as I dedicate it to Mahmoud, my friend and brother who had found his own daring long before I did.

In Taqasim, I shall entrust to the broad range of the lower registers of the oud and double bass the task of communicating those tremendous but obscure dimensions that are often ignored by the listeners’ ears – the task of expressing the profound consonance between the poet and the musician.

In Taqasim, my music will not “portray” anything or “refer” to anything. Rather than attempt to reconcile two systems of expression, it will re-create what the poetry of Darwish has created in me, in a manner analogous to the way digital systems process information, with analog material faithfully reproduced after being digitally encoded.

In Taqasim, I will try to reproduce, only as music can, the esthetical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual resonance of Darwish’s poetry. Through a purely musical idiom, I will attempt to communicate what my singing voice has never been able to communicate in any setting of Darwish’s poems.

I will “encode” his poetry in a system of rhythm, melody, and harmony. To the listener’s sensitivity, I shall entrust the task of decoding, which I sincerely hope will be truly faithful to the source.

For more on Taqasim, please read here.

Jadal: Oud Duo

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Each song on this album costs 3 credits ($2.97).

Caress

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

“I do not use the West to get to the West,” said Marcel Khalife about his album Caress/Mouda’aba

“If the new world order gives me the culture of MacDonalds and Pepsi Cola, I question that. Those things disappear after a short while. What we are doing is a project that will take years and years.”

Khalife’s mission began before Israel seized his cassettes upon invading his country, Lebanon, in 1982. “Since I was born,” he says, “I’ve felt I had a rebel’s soul within me. I rejected things that might be inherited, but that were wrong.” Born into a Christian family, Khalife—who plays the oud, an Arabic lute, has always been a voice of reconciliation, peace, and hope. During Lebanon’s civil war, he risked his life performing in bombed out concert halls, bringing his music and the great poetry of the Arab world to his war-ravished country.

At the same time, Khalife has been stretching the boundaries of his instrument and Arabic music. Oud playing was traditionally constrained by the strict techniques that governed its playing. Skillful musicians like Khalife have freed the instrument from those constraints greatly expanding its possiblities. About his latest CD and tour, Khalife says, “This work attempts to elevate Arabic music to a level that allows it to express profound human emotions, not by mere performance, but by empowering the music to mature and develop into a universal language of expression.

Khalife’s musical career has consistently been marked by two traits. The first is a multi-faceted, category-defying approach to music itself. “My grandfather was a fisherman and he used to sing songs of the sea,” Khalife recalls. “Then I used to go to church and listen to Christian music, and also to Islamic recitations of the Koran. In Lebanon we have a marriage of Islamic and Christian culture. That really helped to form my musical awareness.” Khalife always drew from diverse musical sources and composed in a variety of settings from oud duos to full orchestras.

His composition is noted for being deeply attached to lyrical text. Through his association with great contemporary Arab poets, most notably Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of Arab song, breaking its stereotypes and advancing the culture of the society that surrounds it. Millions in the Arab World recognize Khalife as a cultural icon.

“I do not fit in a cultural box, nor do I want to,” says Khalife, who now lives in Paris. “I have strived all my life to break free of old traditional constraints, to let music speak for itself unshackled by predetermined traditional rules. I have defied identities and categorizations, which only serve to blind us to the vastness and complexity of humanity. There are no set lenses with which I should be looked at. My music, it all comes together for the sake of humanity.”

The second trait has been a consistent message of peace and justice. And this continues today, setting the tone for this Fall’s tour. “More than ever, we all have to work much harder for peace,” says Khalife. “Peace cannot be imposed upon a people by a certain political power or agenda. Peace is achieved through respect, understanding of others and their culture; it is achieved by giving up fear of others; it is achieved through dialogue.”

Marcel Khalife will be performing with Al Mayadine Ensemble, a group that he founded in 1976. Al Mayadine has the double-meaning of “village-square” and “battlefield.” Khalife is joined on the tour by his long time premiere vocalist Oumaima Khalil, who has been performing with Khalife since she was 12 years old. Al Mayadine Ensemble also features Yolla Keryakos as second vocalist, Rami Khalife on piano, Peter Herbert on double bass and Bachar Khalife on percussion (riq, tabla, mazhar, vibraphone, congas, bongos).

Adapted courtesy RockPaperScissors - http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/185.cfm

Peace Be with You

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Marcel Khalife's 1990 album predated by 15 years his appointment in 2005 as UNESCO's Artist for Peace award and shows his long and determined quest for peace.

Promises of the Storm

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Promises of the Storm was first released in 1976. It was Marcel Khalife's debut lyrical album. This work endeared him to millions in the arab world. It contains some of Marcel's most popular songs,the likes of Rita and Mother (Oummi) among others.

For download, this album was completely re-recorded and rearranged, while maintaining the soul and the spirit of the original work.

Ode To A Homeland

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Concerto Al Andalus

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Arabic Coffeepot

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Lebanese composer and oud virtuoso Marcel Khalife evokes a swirling brew of rich and complex flavors with his aptly-titled Arabic Coffeepot, a composition for orchestra, oud and solo voice. Khalife, a paradoxical and unique figure in world music, strives to create a reunification of Arabic classical and Western classical music, while admitting influences from folk and popular Arabic traditions.

Above all, he is a skillfully creative orchestrator, conjuring up effects from the rattling chorus of percussion that begins "After All That Happened," to the disorienting swirl of strings and songs that accompanies a change in mode in Khalife creates for his Al Mayadine ensemble, he never overwhelms the simple charm of his folk-inspired melodies.

Khalife sings these melodies himself with both a constant yearning quality and dramatic restraint. Although Khalife intends to create a serious classical music with Arabic Coffeepot, his combination of Western orchestral sounds with Middle Eastern percussion and Arabic melodies forges a world fusion that might even entertain Esquivel fans, not to mention devotees of soundtracks from the film studios of Hollywood and Bombay.

The Bridge

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Magic Carpet

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Early in his life, Marcel Khalife chose to be a traveler proposing to remove barriers between people, cultures and feelings without losing sight of the haven from where he first set sail. Now he offers us his Magic Carpet, a combined suite from his latest two ballets: Alisar, Queen of Carthage and Andalusia, both composed for the Caracalla Dance Troupe. Traveler of a thousand departures, magician of a thousand tricks, Khalife carries us to Andalusia in a tale of travel and lost glory. Then from Tyre to Carthage, the city of fleeing Queen Alisar, he takes us through most delightful sights and breathtaking splendors.

Khalife's close interaction with the Caracalla Dance Troupe has created the "Popular Arabic Ballet" that has won the admiration of audiences and critics throughout the troupe's tours around the world. The Caracalla dancer submits to the magical spell of Khalife's tunes, lending every move to its service. The 1974 play The Marvels of the Prodigy and the Prodigy of the Marvelous marks Khalife's first take off with dance. In Black Tents, he switches to traditional music. In his third ballet, Shot of Glory, he reveals a comprehensive musical vision and a unique style. In Oriental Taming of the Shrew, Echoes and Summer Night's Dream, he reaches a peak in innovation and talent.

An unwearied traveler, Khalife has crossed all roads, all cities and all continents, only to sail back to his first port, home. The ballet Andalusia opened the 1997 Baalbak International Festival, the first revival of one of Lebanon's most important pre-war annual artistic traditions.

Summer Night's Dream

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

A composition of talent and beauty has emerged, transcending time and tradition - the work of Marcel Khalife, Summer Night's Dream. In his original style, Khalife merges the rich music heritage of the Arab culture with the classical form. To this renaissance of rhythms from the past, the Caracalla Dance Troupe performs its own creation, the popular Arabic ballet. Together these artists have liberated the confines of the early techniques and have given birth to a new genre, one which synthesizes the spirit of tradition and the passion of the new.

Summer Night's Dream represents another milestone in the distinguished career of Marcel Khalife. His first venture toward prominence came as The Marvels of the Prodigy and the Prodigy of the Marvelous (les merveilles du prodigé et les prodigés du merveilleux) which he created for the Caracalla Dance Troupe in 1974 Black Tents (Les tentes noires) introduced a technique that infused the dance and traditional music with a work of innovation. The third ballad, Shot of Glory (Tir de lumière), embodied all of music's aesthetics, particularly elegance. In 1982, The History of All Times (L'histoire de tous les temps) declared a more refined style and undeniable talent.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's rich and strange play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Summer Night's Dream evokes enchantment and surprise. Beneath the romance of the tale flows a stream not just playful or seductive, but one which includes the dimmer

and more melancholic forces of human passion. Add to these the Arabic sensibility, and a new work is born, fertile in magic and imagination, reflecting the diversity of Shakespeare's masterpiece.

We perform this dancing play, not with words, but with all facets of the Arabic artistic heritage of dance, music, singing, spectacular costuming, and a lively theatrical production. This creation illuminates our Arabic heritage, transporting the audience to a world of charm and wizardry, balancing illusion and reality, but not excluding the conflict between the aristocrats, peasants and fairies. A Midsummer Night's Dream is human and universal, expressing the rituals and traditions of the social world, and revealing the mystery and spirit of the soul. Summer Night's Dream escapes time and space through dimensions that embrace the impossible, to a world of magic and a world of joy.

Khalife's music epitomizes the radiance of his humanism, his enormous gift, and great sensitivity. Never static or banal, never surrendering to the established or conventional forms. Khalife's creativity, ingenious compositions, and enthusiasm propelled him to the forefront of Arabic music that has been searching for a long time for innovators. His music not only leads the Arabic cultural renaissance, it also represents new developments that will transform current musical definitions.

Dreamy Sunrise

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

At The Border

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Happiness

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500

Ahmad Al Arabi

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:01:00 -0500