The first time I went with the master Palestinian
oudist/violinist/composer, Simon Shaheen. Simon
took me under his wing about 20 years ago and gave
me a chance to understand more of the classical
Arabic repertoire. Along with ney/flutist, Bassam
Saaba and riq/percussionist Michele Merhej, I was
getting a proper introduction to classical Arabic
music. Again, I was an advocate for some common
ground since there was no way in hell that I would
ever be as conversant as the master Arabic musicians
that I was performing alongside. That period of
will forever be grateful to Simon and Bassam for
musical discovery in 2001 led Simon to record “Blue
that!! I was totally in love with the feel of the land,
Flame” which I have come to understand was a real
especially in the mountains, but I was very
landmark recording for younger Arabic musicians
disappointed by how western things had become, and
looking for ways of integrating jazz and other
the fact that some of the wealthy young people in
elements into the Arabic musical vocabulary.
Beirut seemed to have little interest in the real Arabic
culture. I can hardly imagine what such a long civil
war does to the cultural development of a country,
and I wondered if that was a result. Anyone who was
under 10 years old from the start of that conflict till
the end meant that most Lebanese under 30 years old
had a very different cultural experience than the
generations before, which is compounded by the
greater global loss of language and culture. Knowing
the resilience of the Lebanese people I know that they
will keep the spirit of their culture alive!
The second time I went with an extremely
popular Iraqi singer Kazim El Sahir. Again, we
One of my main performance partners at the time
was percussionist/composer Steve Shehan. Steve
brought another whole dimension and skill-set to the
table too. Simon’s Blue Flame ensemble played in
Beit El Dine, Beirut and Saida in the South. Simon
knew I was excited about the trip and went out of his
way to make sure I had a proper cultural experience. I
played in Beit El Dine and in Jordan. He is a superstar
and his band of Iraqi musicians were really excellent.
This performance happened during the start of the
second US war in Iraq. The missiles were falling on
Baghdad at the very period we met and were
rehearsing for the concert in Lebanon. I have to say
that understandably the musicians were extremely