The Arab Avant-Garde – Music, Politics, Modernity

The Arab Avant-Garde: Music, Politics, Modernity

Book

The co-edited book is finally out! Ten articles about new musical positions in the Arab World. Order the book via Wesleyan University Press, Amazon or via your local bookstore.

From jazz trumpeters drawing on the noises of warfare in Beirut to female heavy metallers in Alexandria, the Arab culture offers a wealth of exciting, challenging, and diverse musics. The essays in this collection investigate the plethora of compositional and improvisational techniques, performance styles, political motivations, professional trainings, and inter-continental collaborations that claim the mantle of «innovation» within Arab and Arab diaspora music. While most books on Middle Eastern music-making focus on notions of tradition and regionally specific genres, The Arab Avant Garde presents a radically hybrid and globally dialectic set of practices. Engaging the «avant-garde» – a term with Eurocentric resonances – this anthology disturbs that presumed exclusivity, drawing on and challenging a growing body of literature about alternative modernities.

Chapters delve into genres and modes as diverse as jazz, musical theatre, improvisation, hip hop, and heavy metal as performed in countries like Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and the United States. Focusing on multiple ways in which the «Arab avant-garde» becomes manifest, this anthology brings together international writers with eclectic disciplinary trainings – practicing musicians, area studies specialists, ethnomusicologists, and scholars of popular culture and media. Contributors include Sami W. Asmar, Michael Khoury, Saed Muhssin, Marina Peterson, Kamran Rastegar, Caroline Rooney, and Shayna Silverstein, as well as the editors Kay Dickinson, Ben Harbert and Thomas Burkhalter.


Music

The articles (see table of content) discuss works from these and other musicians and artists:

Halim El-Dabh 

Tarek Atoui

Amir Elsaffar

Kamilya Jubran + Werner Hasler

Mazen Kerbaj and Sharif Sehnaoui

Massive Scar Era

Zad Moultaka

Odious

Praed

Scarab

Scrambled Eggs

Mahmoud Turkmani

Raed Yassin

Reviews

Popular Music, UK, Jan 2015, «The Arab-Avantgarde: Music, Politics, Modernity» (PDF)

Music Reference Services Quarterly, 3/2015, «The Arab Avant-Garde» (PDF)

Trans – Revista Transcultural de Música, Spanien, Nr. 18 (2014), Review «Arab Avant-Garde» (PDF)

psychemusic, Belgien, 18.04.2014, «Arab Avant-Garde» (Link)

Los Angeles Book Review, 26.01.2014, «The Arab Avant-Garde» (Link)

Discography (Selected)

«A» Trio. Music to Our Ears. Al Maslakh. 2011: Lebanon Atoui, Tarek. Mort aux Vaches. Staalplaat. 2008: Netherlands

DAM. Ihda / Dedication. Red Circle Music. 2006: UK

El-Dabh, Halim. Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Columbia Records. 1964:United States

El-Dabh, Halim. Crossing into the Electric Magnetic. Without Fear Recordings. 2000: United States

El-Dabh, Halim. Here History Began. Ministry of Culture and National Guidance. 1961: Egypt

El-Dabh, Halim. Ptahmose and the Magic Spell, Part One: The Osiris Ritual. Hawthorne Records. 1972: United States

El-Dabh, Halim. Sounds of New Music. Folkways Records. 1957: United States

Elsaffar, Amir and Hafez Modirzadeh. Radif Suite. Pi Recordings. 2010: USA

Elsaffar, Amir. Inana. Pi Recordings. 2011: USA

Elsaffar, Amir. Two Rivers. Pi Recordings. 2007: USA

Jubran, Kamilya, and Werner Hasler. Wameedd. Unit Records W&K 001. 2005: Switzerland

Kerbaj, Mazen, and Franz Hautzinger. Abu Tarek. Creative Sources Recordings 025. 2005: Portugal

Kerbaj, Mazen. BRT VRT ZRT KRT. Al Maslakh MSLKH 01. 2005: Lebanon
Mascara. Unfamiliar Territory. Self-releaed. 2010: Egypt

Moultaka, Zad. Zajal. L’Empreinte Digitale. 2010: France

Muslimgauze. Infidel. Extreme XEP 026. 1994: Germany

Nadeem, Aida. Beyond Destruction. Uruk Records. 2010: Denmark

Nadeem, Aida. Out of Bagdad. Uruk Records. 2005: Denmark

Odious. Mirror of Vibrations. Sleaszy Rider Records. 2007: Greece

Osman Arabi. Beat Mutation Rituals. Kalpamantra. 2011: UK

Praed. Made in Japan. Annihaya Records. 2011: Lebanon

Praed. Muesli Man. Creative Source Recordings. 2008: Lebanon

Rahbani, Ziad. Ana Moush Kafer, Relax-In Internation. 2008 (Remaster): Lebanon

Rahbani, Ziad. Bi-ma Innu. Voix De L’Orient. 1995: Lebanon

Rahbani, Ziad. Bilafrah. Voix De L’Orient. 1977: Lebanon

Scarab. Valley of the Sandwalkers. Self-releaed. 2007: Egypt

Scrambled Eggs and «A» Trio. Beach Party at Mirna el Chalouhi. Johnny Kafta. 2010: Lebanon

Scrambled Eggs. Peace Is Overrated &War Misunderstood. Ruptured. 2010: Lebanon

Scrambled Eggs. Scrambled Eggs and Friends. Johnny Kafta. 2010: Lebanon

Sehnaoui, Sharif. Old & New Acoustics. Al-Maslakh 2010: Lebanon

Turkmani, Mahmoud. Ya Sharr Mout. Enja Records ENJ-9530. 2008: Germany

Turkmani, Mahmoud. Zakira. Enja 9475. 2004: Germany

Various Artists. The Ruptured Sessions (Vol. 1–4). Ruptured. 2009–2012: Lebanon

Various Artists. Waking Up Scheherazade. Grey Past Records ABA 001. 2007: Netherlands

Worm. The Armageddon Codex. Self-releaed. 2004: Egypt Wyvern. The Clown. Self-releaed. 2009: Egypt

Yassin, Raed, and Gene Coleman. The Adventures of Nabil Fawzi. Al Maslakh Recordings
04. 2006: Lebanon

Yassin, Raed. The New Album. Annihaya. 2009: Lebanon