Jazz
Born in Paris to Vietnamese parents, Le grew up listening to Deep Purple, then diversified. This explains his howling, fret-capering electric guitar style, although subtle whammy-bar usage does go a long way towards approximating the traditional folk sounds of his forebears. It's not as if this album only has 70s jazz-rock and Vietnam trad. to deal with. Its cast of players is mostly drawn from North Africa, with traditional string and skin (gimbri, bendir, etc.) mingling with the post-bebop horns of Paolo Fresu and Wolfgang Puschnig. All this rampant mixing might sound like a recipe for fusion disaster, but Le manages to fold in all the disparate elements convincingly, forging a particular hybrid that the listener is unlikely to find remotely familiar. Occasionally, his guitar is overworked, but mostly Le makes all the strange meetings appear entirely natural. "FunkRai" features Cheb Mami on synth, its funky rhythm track constructed from loops and samples, while "Ifrikyia" also brings in the West African kora and Peul people's flute. Le's singers also make new friends, a Maghrebi contingent alternating verses with Vietnamese and Guinean soloists during "Louanges".
By Martin Longley.
**
Vietnamese guitarist Nguyen Le comes forth with perhaps his most musically diverse project, incorporating a nice array of African instumental and vocal influences into his mix. As I listened with great enjoyment, I couldn't help making some parallel to Pat Metheny's jazz fusion albums..."Maghreb and Friends" is so much more substantial. Whereas in the Metheny aggregations we get soft "da da ah ah" chants, here the lyrical content is charged with great emotion and fire. These folks want you to know and believe what they are singing. And, as for the playing, Le is far more akin to Michael Hedges than he is to Metheny.
A fine effort, try to find it, it is getting very scarce.
**
Nguyên Lê- Guitars, fretless bass, vietnamese zither, programming
Karim Ziad- Drums, gumbri, perc (karkabous, taarijet, bendir, derbuka, tablas), vocals
Michel Alibo- Electric bass
Bojan Zulfikarpasic- Acoustic piano
Zahra Bani, Kadija Haliba, Malika Rhami, Saïda Madrani, Halima Zaiter- Vocals & perc (taarijet, bendir, naakkous, tar)
Wolfgang Puschnig- Alto sax
Paolo Fresu- Trumpet
Alain Debiossat- Soprano Sax
Stefano Di Battista- Alto & Soprano Sax
Mokhtar Samba– Drums
Cheb Mami- accordion- Synth
Djemaï Abdenour- Mandola, algerian banjo
Mejdoub Ftati– Violin
Aziz Sahmaoui– Vocals
Mohamed Menni- Vocals, perc (taarijet, bendir, derbuka)
Mehdi Askeur– Vocals
Huong Thanh- Vietnamese vocals
Hao Nhien- Vietnamese flute
Gaëlle Hervé– Vocals
Marielle Hervé– Vocals
Jean Jacques Avenel– Kora
Aly Wagué- African Peul flute & vocals
**
01. Ifrikyia - 05:31 (Karim Ziad, Nguyên Lê)
02. Constantine - 06:20 (Nguyên Lê, Youcef Boukella)
03. Louanges - 05:53 (Karim Ziad)
04. Yhadik Allah - 04:37 (Nguyên Lê, Karim Ziad, B'net Houariyat)
05. Nora - 06:30 (Nguyên Lê, Karim Ziad)
06. Funk Raï - 05:15 (Nguyên Lê)
07. L'Arkha li jeya - 06:41 (Nguyên Lê, Karim Ziad, B'net Houariyat)
08. Guinia - 05:43 (Nguyên Lê, Dominique Borker)
09. Nesraf - 06:33 (Nguyên Lê, Mohammed El Anka)
**
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