Concert: Anouar Brahem & Friends

This was concert out in the Helix. I went to this ages ago - like, totally before last Christmas. Anouar Brahem is a guy who plays the oud; his pals (who might be called Thimar) do not. I saw them the night before flying off to the Nightmare Before Christmas. I really wasn't in the form for this, mainly through not having packed for the festival and being dog-tired, but I had bought an expensive ticket and goddamit, I never wuss out of something for which I have tickets. I was also a bit worried that it might be a bit dull, like the Jan Garbarek unpleasantness, but this proved not to be the case. Brahem and his pals played music that was most engaging, fusing Arab and jazzy rhythms in a manner that worked without going all Wynton Marsalis. For all that there is a lot of bad jazz-Arab crossover music out there, you could see why people keep giving it a go, as they are both improvisational forms. Brahem's lot seem to have got the hang of doing this properly, deadly stuff. Watch out for them.

One unfortunate thing about all this was related to my habit of listening to oud music while falling asleep. Given my *tired* state, Brahem's pluckings soon had me snoozing away, much to the annoyance of people who don't like those who sing songs by Journey in their sleep.

The support band were a load of saxophonists called The Rise Quartet (I suspect there were four of them). I liked them too.

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