| B i o g r a p h y |
Anouar Brahem
- born on October 20, 1957 - is a Tunisian oud player and composer. He
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.
Brahem was born in Halfaouine in the Medina of Tunis, Tunisia. He
studied oud at Tunisia's National Conservatory of Music. 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..
After a period back in Tunisia in the late 1980s, when Brahem was
appointed director of the Ensemble musical de la ville de Tunis, he
toured in the USA and Canada and then signed with ECM Records with whom
he has recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums. These include
"Thimar", recorded with saxophonist John Surman and bassist Dave
Holland.
In playing style, Anouar Brahem is often compared to Rabih Abou-Khalil,
though his compositions tend to be more mellow and spare. Most often he
utilizes an ensemble of three or four musicians. He has collaborated
throughout his career and on several albums with other musicians:
Tunisian percussionist Lassad Hosni and violinist Bechir Selmi and
Turkish clarinetist Barbaros Erköse. He has also performed live concerts
with these same ensembles.