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Ibrahim Maalouf

Browse piano sheets by Ibrahim Maalouf on Zen Virtual Piano. Ibrahim Maalouf was born in Beirut in 1980 and works as a trumpeter, composer and producer. His official biography presents him as a major figure over more than fifteen years in blending jazz, classical music, pop and Oriental sounds, with a career that has taken him to more than forty countries. A Beirut-born trumpeter at home in jazz, classical and pop suggests a musician for whom the borders between genres are porous. Fifteen years of work and more than forty countries suggest a musician whose reach grew along with his range. On the album Red & Black Light, he says, the music leans toward a more current, electronic and even pop aesthetic, made up of his own compositions and a cover of Beyoncé. He notes that the writing is complex, with polyrhythms in 19, 17 or 27 beats for example, yet he and the three musicians around him arranged it so that the weight of the writing is never heard. He says they sidestepped the trap of elitism and scientific writing to make a clear album that listeners can dance or sing to, though it holds layers of themes, harmonies and rhythms that only a mathematical reading would reveal. One way to hear 27-beat polyrhythms under music made for dancing is as two records in one: something to hum along to, and something to count. Quincy Jones spotted him at the Montreux Jazz Festival and became one of his supporters through Quincy Jones Productions in Los Angeles. The New York Times has called him a virtuoso, and he has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis, Angélique Kidjo, Melody Gardot, the Kronos Quartet, Trilok Gurtu, Josh Groban, Marcus Miller and Salif Keïta, among many others. Since 2007 he has created, composed, arranged and produced around twenty albums for himself and other artists, and he has composed about fifteen film soundtracks and numerous symphonic works. Collaborators who run from Wynton Marsalis to the Kronos Quartet to Salif Keïta leave the impression of a musician more often found between genres than inside one. He has taught trumpet and improvisation in conservatoires since 1999, and the International Trumpet Guild has invited him several times to give concerts and masterclasses in the United States. He founded the first classical improvisation class in Paris and in 2022 created the Free Spirit Ensemble, presented as the first classical orchestra in the world dedicated to improvisation. It is tempting to see teaching trumpet and improvisation, alongside performing around the world, as two directions of one practice: playing and passing on.

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Red & Black Light

Ibrahim Maalouf

Intermediate

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Where was Ibrahim Maalouf born?

Ibrahim Maalouf was born in Beirut in 1980. He is a trumpeter, composer and producer.

What is the album Red & Black Light by Ibrahim Maalouf?

He says it leans toward a more current, electronic and even pop aesthetic, with his own compositions and a cover of Beyoncé, and that its polyrhythms in 19, 17 or 27 beats are arranged so that the weight of the writing is never heard.

What does Ibrahim Maalouf teach?

He has taught trumpet and improvisation in conservatoires since 1999 and founded the first classical improvisation class in Paris.