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LeTrio Joubran highlights summit
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Ann Arbor News, LeTrio Joubran highlights summit >>
The three brothers who constitute Le Trio Joubran, draw from more than 4,000 years of tradition - including three generations of making the oud, ancestor of the guitar, in their own family - to create music that's original.
Samir, Wissan and Adnan Joubran take the template of classical music from the Arab world and turn it on its head, fusing it with elements of flamenco guitar and, particularly, the jazz fusion of Western gurtarists like John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola.
"When I heard that music, I wondered why the oud couldn't sound shiny like that," said the eldest brother, and the group's leader, Samir Joubran, during recent phone interviews from his home in Paris. "In our home, we listened to different music, from Indian and Spanish to Bach.
"And my father is crazy about Elvis Presley, so that gives you an idea what it was like at our house."
The trio performs Saturday at Hill Auditorium as part of the University Musical Society's Arab World Music Summit, which this year features music from the Levant region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
Le Trio Joubran draws on the individual strengths of each of the three brothers. Samir Joubran, who enjoyed a successful solo career before forming the trio two years ago, is the primary composer, while middle brother Wissan Joubran, a master luthier, builds the instruments they play. Youngest brother Adnan Joubran is an oud virtuoso whose full talent is only beginning to emerge.
Samir Joubran said by playing instruments made in the family's tradition, it's almost as if six brothers are on stage performing together.
The group's 2005 album, "Randana," has attracted an audience thanks to its seamless blend of classical and modern forms.
Listeners unfamiliar with Arab classical music might hear it as traditional, while familiar ears hear the modern influences that come to bear in the brothers' solos.
Samir Joubran said no other group has ever combined three ouds together at once, leaving the trio an open landscape to perform its music.
He said about 70 percent of the group's music is improvised, owing partly to the fact that there is no repertory for the oud trio.
Western influences can be heard in the bluesy melodies that emerge from the brothers' percussive playing and the quick, improvised solos they trade back and forth in their songs.
Samir Joubran said solos in traditional oud music might last 20 minutes or more.
"It's more like we're talking in musical sentences," he said.
That level of improvisation leads to a healthy competition onstage, with each brother - in Western jazz fashion - trying to outplay the others.
"It's not ego," Samir Joubran said. "It's just a pleasure to have that kind of dialogue in music.
The brothers, who were born in the biblical city of Nazareth, in the former Palestine, travel on Israeli passports and, as result, are not able to perform in most Arab countries. Instead, the group has been bringing its form of Arab music to Western audiences.
"I needed some place far from Middle East politics in order to create and play music," he said.
The Arab Music Summit, now in its second year celebrating broad tradition of music from the Middle East, also features Abdullah Chhadeh, a master of the 81-stringed Qanun, or zither, and pianist Kami Khalife. 04/13/06
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