Palestinian guitarist Michel Sajrawy was shredding in a Nazareth basement with his buddies when he found the answer: a guitar technique that let him play both Arab and Western melodies with perfect flexibility.
“Suddenly I came up with a maqam-based solo, in the middle of a rock song,” Sajrawy recalls. “My musician friends were fighting me, shouting, ‘It’s maqam! You should play traditional rock!’ I have a unique way that makes me produce these sounds on ordinary guitar, with total freedom to play everything from maqamat to bebop lines.”
After years of refining his approach on stage and in the studio, including on two well-received albums (Yathrib and Writings on the Wall), Sajrawy has brought his explorations to thoughtful fruition on Arabop, a series of polished tunes that organically unite the modes and forms of Arab music from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, and the high-energy creativity of bebop. Whether rethinking Arab classics (the spitfire “Longa Farah Faza”) or crafting originals that move fluidly between jazz and Arab idiom (“Arabop”), Sajrawy’s focus, drive, and innovative touch show how in the right hands, east and west do more than meet; they merge.
“I want to have my own style and flavor,” Sajrawy notes. “I don’t want to sound like another musician. I want to reflect the culture of the region I live in.”
As a Palestinian Christian with an Israeli passport and a British conservatory education, Sajrawy finds that uniting disparate cultural and sonic worlds comes second nature. Yet to find the right way to express this intersection — where
“Suddenly I came up with a maqam-based solo, in the middle of a rock song,” Sajrawy recalls. “My musician friends were fighting me, shouting, ‘It’s maqam! You should play traditional rock!’ I have a unique way that makes me produce these sounds on ordinary guitar, with total freedom to play everything from maqamat to bebop lines.”
After years of refining his approach on stage and in the studio, including on two well-received albums (Yathrib and Writings on the Wall), Sajrawy has brought his explorations to thoughtful fruition on Arabop, a series of polished tunes that organically unite the modes and forms of Arab music from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, and the high-energy creativity of bebop. Whether rethinking Arab classics (the spitfire “Longa Farah Faza”) or crafting originals that move fluidly between jazz and Arab idiom (“Arabop”), Sajrawy’s focus, drive, and innovative touch show how in the right hands, east and west do more than meet; they merge.
“I want to have my own style and flavor,” Sajrawy notes. “I don’t want to sound like another musician. I want to reflect the culture of the region I live in.”
As a Palestinian Christian with an Israeli passport and a British conservatory education, Sajrawy finds that uniting disparate cultural and sonic worlds comes second nature. Yet to find the right way to express this intersection — where
Pat Martino
guitar1944 - 2021
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