Guitarist Michel Sajrawy is a collection of seeming contradictions--he's a Christian Arab with an Israeli passport and a Palestinian identity, but his music cuts across cultural lines and barriers. Like fellow musicians John McLaughlin and Paul Winter, Sajraway explores a zone where electric jazz and ethnic music--in this case, the different styles native to the Middle East--overlap and combine. The jazz side of his personality comes not from fusion but from mainstream aspects of American jazz--six-stringers like Larry Coryell and John Scofield (both of whom have fusion backgrounds, by the way). Sajraway does indeed draw upon Middle Eastern music, albeit in a very subtle way, as Django Reinhardt worked his Gypsy/Rom heritage into his jazz guitar style. WRITING ON THE WALL is thoughtful, dreamily swinging post-bop jazz, though Sajraway gets a little funky in `60s Herbie Hancock fashion on "Ya Salam."
Personnel: Michel Sajrawy (electric guitar); Franck Dhersin (piano); Valeri Lipets (double bass); Evgeni Maistrovski, Ameen Atrash (drums).
Tracklist:1. Bride Of The Galilee
2. Writings On The Wall
3. Ta Ti Ta Ta
4. Blue Sheep
5. Pink Inside
6. Ya Salam
7. Earth, Wind And Fire
8. Green
9. The Arch And The Branch
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Hotfile / @vbr
