Imagine: you have already shown your mastery in both Arabic lute music and classical western music, even successfully mixed these traditions together, while fully immersing yourself in jazz and its improvisation techniques… what else? The Lebanese-German ud and flute player Rabih Abou-Khalil initially found the request of a Portuguese theater director very funny: to compose music based on Portuguese
… poetry, a language he did not know at all. An irresistible task for a pioneer like him. In the young fado singer Ricardo Ribeiro, Abou-Khalil found the ideal interpreter for his complicated rhythms and unusual melodies. He also invited old acquaintances: the Italian accordionist Luciano Biondini, the French tuba player and bass guitarist Michel Godard and the American drummer Jarrod Cagwin. On the album Rabih Abou-Khalil Em Português, the virtuoso singer and musicians prove extremely capable of interpreting Abou-Khalil's demanding and virtuoso music. They add their own qualities to that, making the music impossible to pigeonhole. It's not fado, it's not jazz, it's not Arabic music… but everything at the same time. (SvdP)more
