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Erie Times News , Feature >>

OUT OF NAZARETH

Three West Bank Invtiiers bring ancient musical tradition to Mercyhurst.
 
Adnan, Samir and Wissam Joubran are the sons and grandsons of master luthiers, men who crafted the avocado-shaped oud, a string instrument that is the ancestor of the guitar with a history in the Middle East that is perhaps thousands of years old.

As natives of the West Bank city of Nazareth the three oud-playing brothers are heirs to another kind of history that is scarcely less ancient: the ethnic and religious strife that has plagued the region since the dawn of history.

The Joubrans are among the nearly million Palestinians living within the borders of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. They carry Israeli passports, and because of that fact, these masters of traditional Arab music are forbidden to travel to most of the Arab world. It's just one of the factors that adds to the depth and beauty of the music that the Joubrans will play at Mercyhurst's Walker Recital Hall this evening.

But it's not the only one.
Music is a family tradition on both sides of the Joubran family. Their mother sang in an ensemble dedicated to the classical Muasha- hat tradition of music and poem; and the gravity and elegance of that tradition is e\ident in every filigreed tendril of melody the Joubrans play.

So is virtuosity Youngest brother Adnan, 20, is a firebrand, and because much of the music the brothers play is improvised, the middle brother, Wissam, 22, often takes center stage with his rhapsodic, instantly composed taksims.

But the heart of the group and its founder is 32-year-old Samir Joubran, who was inspired to found the ensemble after hearing the three-guitar rave-ups of jazz guitarists John McLaughlin and Al DiMeola and the Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia.

A graduate of the Nazareth Institute of Music and Cairo's Muhammad Abdul Yahab Conservatory; Samir is the composer of the group and an encyclopedia of the 42 maqams or scales upon which Arabic music is based.

As Palestinian Christians, the Joubrans are a minority within minority (numbers are hard to come by, but the proportion of Palestinians who are Christian is thought to be between three and nine percent). As such, they are pan of an ancient community; one from the literal birthplace of their faith.

There is something of this timeless quality in the formal elegance of the Joubrans' music. But there is an equally deep strain of emotion - banked emotion to be sure - but all the more powerful for it. It is impossible to hear these three men playing without hearing the tragedy of their people and the implacability of fate.

But even without a scrap of knowledge about geopolitics, Trio Joubran offers music of emotion, grave beauty and hope.

Le Trio Joubran perform tonight at 7:30 at Walker Recital Hall at Mercyhurst College. Tickets are $17.50 adults, $15 students and seniors for children 15 and under, $1 for Mercyhurst students with ID, and are avaliable at the box office at 824-3000. For more information on Le Trio Joubran

---by John Chacona-Contributing writer
John Chacona, an Erie writer, is a contributor to Coda and Signal To Noise magazines.  His blog on music and culture, "Let's call this," is at www.johnchacona.com

The Concert In Your Home

The new CD by Le Trio Joubran is more than a spellbinding document.  It is a historical one, as well.  "Randana" was released on the Joubran's label of the same name, the first recording label of the new Palestinian Authority.  It's hypnotic and incantatory, with bursts of furious picking that recall that Greek bouzouki music and Spanish flamenco that flowered from this Arabic root.  With the concluding "Ahwak," recorded live in the brothers' hometown of Ramallah on the West Bank, the CD turns emotional as the crowd sings along with Samir's plaintive melody.  "Randana" 

(Fairplay/Randana/sheer11983) may not be easy to find, but it will repay the effort 4,000-fold.   04/13/06
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