Lebanon

Rabih Abou-Khalil (ربيع أبو خليل‎) was born on August 17, 1957 in Lebanon. He is a world-class oud player & composer. Since early childhood he has worked at perfecting his skills on the the oud, the fretless stringed instrument, similar to the European lute that is so prominent in much of Arabic music. He studied in the Beirut Music Conservatory under the tutelage of oud virtuoso Georges Farah.

Arabian Waltz is at or near the pinnacle of Rabih Abou-Khalil's achievements as a composer & arranger who has combined traditional Arabic music with many of the tenets of jazz. It is a sublime fusion of jazz, Middle Eastern traditional music, & Western classical. In addition to Abou-Khalil on oud, Michel Godard on the tuba & the serpent (the tuba's antique kinsman), & Nabil Khaiat on frame drums, the album also features the Balanescu String Quartet instead of the usual trumpet or sax. Without surrendering jazziness at all, the presence of the strings makes possible a wondrous atmosphere, almost as if one is listening to the soundtrack of a classy movie set in Beirut or Damascus during the '40s.

Rabih Abou-Khalil –Arabian Waltz, Enja ENJ 90592, 1996.

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Arabian Waltz

Dreams of a Dying City

Ornette Never Sleeps

Georgina

No Visa

The Pain After

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Marcel Khalife (مرسيل خليفة‎) was born June 10, 1950, in Amchit, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, a small coastal village north of Beirut.

He is a Lebanese composer, singer, & oud player. From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the Music conservatory in Beirut. In 1976, he formed Al Mayadeen Ensemble. They became famous for songs like “Ummi” (My Mother), “Rita w'al-Bunduqiya” (Rita & the Rifle), & “Jawaz al-Safar” (Passport), based on Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry.

Three times (1996, 1999, & 2003), he faced criminal prosecution for his song “I am Joseph, O Father”, also written by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Khalife was accused of insulting religious values by including a two-line verse from a chapter of the Qur'an.

Khalifa recorded the song in his 1995 album The Arabic Coffee Pot that was based on a 1992 poem of the prominent Palestinian poet. The poem adapted this verse from the story of Yousef (Joseph) in the Qur'an: "O my father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon bowing before me in homage." It tells the story of how Joseph's brothers were jealous of him because he was handsome & kind. His brothers then sold him into slavery. The story was a reflection of the suffering of the Palestinian people.

In 1999, the case was brought to a court by the newly appointed investigating judge, Abdel Rahman Shihab, who reproached Marcel of "insulting religious values by using a verse from the chapter of Joseph from the Qur'an in a song." Marcel faced six months to three years imprisonment for publicly insulting religion (article 474 of the Lebanon's penal code, six months to three years in prison) & blasphemy (article 473 of the penal code, one month to one year in prison). That same year, Marcel was awarded the Palestine Award for Music. In turn, he contributed the financial portion of the award to the National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University in Palestine.

Senior Sunni Muslim clerics in Lebanon ruled that singing verses from the Qur'an was "absolutely banned & not accepted." The highest Sunni Muslim religious authority in Lebanon, Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhamed Rashid Qabbani, has maintained repeatedly that Khalifa is guilty of blasphemy for singing a verse from the Qur'an. Sheikh Qabbani said : "There is a limit to freedom of expression. One limit is that it should not infringe on people's religious beliefs."

Demonstrations of solidarity came from many sides: intellectuals; human rights organizations; & everyday people. A meeting was held in Beirut where 2000 people sang altogether the song in trial. Marcel Khalife even received the support of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Shi'ite theologist. The famous Lebanese writer Elias Khoury harshly criticized the trial, as did Mahmoud Darwish, who said “Fundamentalism is in the process of stifling culture and creation in the Arab world, I say it is shameful. I am ashamed. We should all be ashamed. If Marcel Khalife is found guilty, it will be an insult to culture.”

In 2003, Ghada Abu Karrum, the judge for the case, rejected the demand of the prosecutor, & found Marcel innocent of the charge of degrading Islam. As stated in the judgment :

“Although, in the first place, it is not for this court in any circumstance to indulge in discussing whether the action of the defendant mentioned above constitutes a deviation from Islamic tradition and its prohibitions, it is necessary to note that human societies have always known – since the advent of religions until this day – forms of behavior that touched the various aspects of life while not always observing all religious rules or abiding by them without that necessarily forming a desecration of the religious sanctity of the texts from which these rules have emerged.”

“Hence, it is clear from listening to the tape and CD at hand that the defendant has chanted the poem in gravity and composure that reveal a deep perception of the humanism expressed in the poem ornamented with the holy phrase. [He is] committed in his expression – in form and content – to a performance that bears no infringement on the holiness of the Qur'anic text, or offense to it or its content, nor reveal any intent to incite disparagement of it explicitly or implicitly, neither by words, meaning, nor music.”

In 2005, Khalife was named UNESCO Artist for Peace.

On Jadal Oud Duo, the musicians are: oud duo Marcel Khalife & Charbel Rouhana; Abboud El Saadi – bass; & Ali El Khatib – tambourine.

 Marcel Khalife – Jadal Oud Duo, Nagam Records NR 1009 2xCD, 1995. 

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Tracklist –

CD 1 –

1st Movement

2nd Movement

CD 2 –

3rd Movement

4th Movement

Enjoy,

NØ