Rabih Abou-Khalil

Rabih Abou-Khalil, a composer and oud player born in Lebanon, merges Arabic musical traditions with jazz improvisation and European classical methods. CMJ New Music Report observed that Abou-Khalil has "consistently sought to create common ground between the Arab music mileau of his roots and the more global musical world of today." Down Beat described his output as "a unique hybrid that successfully spans the world of traditional Arabic music and jazz." Although he first took up the oud, the fretless Lebanese lute, while still a child, Abou-Khalil set the instrument aside for classical flute after relocating to Munich, Germany, amid the Lebanese Civil War in 1978 and enrolling at the Academy of Music. Seeking fresh approaches to Arabic repertoire, he later resumed the oud and began adapting techniques more commonly associated with jazz guitar. In the early-'90s Southwest German radio commissioned him to compose two works that received their premiere at the 1992 Stuttgart Jazz Summit alongside the Kronos String Quartet and were subsequently recorded with the Belanescu Quartet. His projects have united Arabic, Indian, and American jazz performers such as alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune, frame drummer and percussionist Glen Valez, conga player Milton Cardona, harmonica ace Howard Levy, and bassists Glen Moore and Steve Swallow.