Ibrahim Maalouf - Kalthoum

"KALTHOUM" is a celebration of women who have changed the course of history and whose artistic influence has had an impact on our lives today. I have therefore chosen an emblematic figure, a true monument to the history of the Arab people, and who is also the voice I have listened to the most since my early childhood: Oum Kalthoum. Pianist Frank Woeste and I took one of this Egyptian diva's greatest songs, and we "translated" it into jazz that's rather conventional, but hopefully it innovates in the way it mixes cultures: the song is "Alf Leila Wa Leila" ("The Thousand and One Nights"). The song was composed in 1969 by Baligh Hamidi, taking the form of a suite lasting around an hour (as often in those days), with a three-minute chorus and verses of between five and twenty-five minutes. A large part of the piece is reserved for improvisation, both in the original version and in this one, but this suite is above all a series of paintings, and the way it's set up was very exciting to re-transcribe. We recorded and mixed it in New York with the same crew as for the album "Wind" in 2011, which was also a homage (to Miles Davis), so I naturally thought of "Kalthoum" as continuing that fine adventure on record, with Larry Grenadier (double bass), Clarence Penn (drums), Mark Turner (saxophone) and Frank Woeste on piano. Quasi neuf.