Jordanian guitar and oud magician Kamal Musallam releases his latest album to international acclaim
The distinctive mop of curls, perched on a slightly hunched, barrel-shaped frame, is always a welcome sight in Amman. With more and more live music in Jordan’s capital taking the form of glorified jams, it’s a welcome relief to see Kamal Musallam unpacking his guitar in the corner of a bar – and considering he has been living in Dubai for the past seven years, one that is sadly all too rare. The Jordanian oud and guitar maestro – he prefers to label his music “world” as opposed to “jazz” – was back in town for the holiday season, and some itchy fingers had encouraged him to join Yacoub Abu Ghosh’s ensemble Chapter 10 for a pre-Christmas session at Canvas in Jebel Weibdeh. After a quiet start, finding his feet with new playing partners, he soon unleashed a blistering salvo of rippling licks over the standard jazz rhythms, transforming the accomplished into the outstanding.
“I’m here to speak to some musicians about a new project I’m planning with the drummer Billy Cobham,” he says afterwards, mopping his brow after an intense hour. “I’m going to Beirut then Syria, but it’s nice to play in Jordan while I’m here.”
It’s very nice, moreover, to hear him; he could have been forgiven for wanting to take an end-of-year rest. The past 12 months have been extremely active, and with every new project comes new accolades – from much more learned audiences than a Tuesday night crowd in an Ammani restaurant. His latest album Lulu is a collection of contemporary Emirati music combined with poetry by Mohamed al-Meqbali and Ali Salem al-Kaabi, and even a burst from local soul band Abri – and it was recently nominated for a Grammy in the best Contemporary World Music Album category. “It was very surprising to be nominated, the first for a Jordanian I imagine! But for me it was something I had been thinking about for seven years, ever since I moved to Dubai from Amman. I’m very pleased with its release.”
Born in Kuwait, Gulf-style music is nothing new to Kamal, and living in the Emirates and hearing it at weddings and parties tweaked his nostalgia. He approached the Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage council, who immediately agreed to fund the album, with a concert and launch to follow, he hopes, in March. “The album is the story of a tribe, it can be read as a day-in-the-life, or even the life of whole a society,” says Kamal. “We start with morning, heading into the desert, the hunt for food, prosperity and growth, and that’s when we have the English-language track from Abri, which mirrors the Gulf. Then we return to nightfall and lastly ‘Round Midnight’, which is oud music built on a traditional jazz standard.”
The highlight of the 12-track collection is “The G Song”, Kamal’s noir-ish instrumental which crackles with melancholy and uncertainty throughout its eight minutes. But the whole is another showcase of his versatility and dexterity – and makes us acknowledge once again just what we’re missing.
