Nashaz in Arabic means “generally out of tune,” notes Brian Prunka, whose new album and group that plays on it both bear that name.

“I’ve heard it translated different ways, including ‘asthetically offensive,’” adds Prunka. “The most literal is something like ‘unmusical.’ But for me it’s a tongue-in-cheek name referencing that we’re doing something that Arabic music or jazz purists won’t necessarily be fond of. It’s preemptive tongue-in-cheek!”

As it turns out, however, “Arab listeners have generally embraced the name,” continues Prunka, who plays the oud Arabic lute as well as guitar. The other members of Nashaz are Kenny Warren, trumpet; Nathan Herrera, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, alto flute; Apostolos Sideris, bass; and George Mel and Vin Scialla on assorted Western and world percussion instruments.

All of the Nashaz players have diverse musical backgrounds, including Prunka, who was a jazz guitarist in New Orleans when an Egyptian cabbie who had picked him up suggested he try out the oud.

“Fate was pushing me toward the oud,” he says of that fateful 1998 ride. “My car was in the shop, so I took a cab to a gig. I had my guitar with me so we started talking about music, and out of nowhere he said I should learn to play oud, because it’s the most beautiful instrument. I hadn’t heard of it and thought it was a weird suggestion, and not long after I was browsing around in a record store and came across an oud record by Rabih Abou-Khalil, a Lebanese player who worked with jazz musicians. I picked it up on a whim, and thought it was really an amazing-sounding instrument—and it seemed similar enough to the guitar to not be impossible to learn.”

Prunka then picked up as many oud records as he could find.

“I learned the music, and then got to a point where I really had to have one, and after a long search I found one,” he continues. “I taught myself, and then I heard [Brooklyn-based Palestinian oud master] Simon Shaheen—whose records completely amazed me. I learned that he teaches every summer at a weeklong intensive Arabic music retreat in Massachusetts, and I went to it in 2001 and it changed my life.”

Studying with Shaheen, adds Prunka, led to his involvement in “the whole deep history and tradition of Arabic music. I searched high and low for everything I could find, in belly dance shops in New Orleans, in Lebanese grocery stores. It was like I found a sound I’d been looking for as far back as I could remember, that connected with me in such a profound way.”

Prunka, who now lives in Brooklyn, has returned to Shaheen’s retreat whenever possible, and will be there for Shaheen’s Seventeenth Annual Arabic Music Retreat, to be held from August 10-17 at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.

“Simon’s asked me to do a bit of teaching this year, so I’ve gone from being a newbie not knowing anything to helping get other people started out!” he says.

Prior to Nashaz, Prunka appeared mostly on jazz recordings put out by New Orleans musicians, as well as his 2001 album In Praise Of Shadows.

“It was all original,” notes Prunka. “I’m playing guitar and a little oud, and there’s violin, bass and drums. It’s jazz but with a more ‘downtown’ aesthetic, like Erik Friedlander or John Zorn.”

Nashaz, however, shows the primary influence of Arabic music.

“Most jazz musicians hate the word ‘fusion’ because it’s so associated with jazz-rock fusion,” says Prunka. “I think of it as maqam jazz: Maqam is the Arabic music system—but it’s also used in Turkey and parts of Central Asia. So Nashaz is Arabic jazz, an Arabic jazz hybrid. You could call it modern Arabic music, but there is a lot of different kinds of modern Arabic music that is not jazz.”

Nashaz is also entirely composed by Prunka.

“I wanted everyone in the band to have a jazz background, maybe not necessarily an Arabic music background, too, but in addition to jazz, they had to have seriously studied one or two other kinds of music," he notes, "people who had the desire and seriousness for music beyond jazz. Luckily, I found an amazing group of musicians to realize the idea I had--this jazz/Arabic crossover.”

Nashaz will be available Sept. 1 via regular download channels as well as digital/physical CD vendors like CD Baby and Bandcamp. Other suppliers include Arabic music distributor Rashid Music Sales and Downtown Music Gallery, both based in New York.

The album is also available through Prunka’s websites brianprunka.com and nashazmusic.com.

Prunka, who has recently recorded with Shaheen, now looks to “expand the radius” of performing with Nashaz regionally throughout the Northeast “and hopefully Europe,” he says—and also Lebanon.

“Lebanon’s a dream,” he explains. “Beirut is kind of the New York of the modern Arabic music world.”