Ibrahim Maalouf

Ibrahim Maalouf, a trumpet player who doesn’t like the trumpet! A surprising statement in a world where most people tend to fetishise their instrument...
But Ibrahim quickly nuances his words: “I haven’t always liked it... In twenty- three years of companionship, I frankly hated it for eighteen of them: so loud, such a blaring timbre! My father, who was my teacher, managed to keep me from getting away from it altogether.
Of course, there are trumpet players I admire, but none of them directly influenced me... except my father. He devised a trumpet with four pistons, which can play quarter tones.” And that opened wide the doors to Arabic music.

He himself hesitates to define his style: “Jazzman? That term honours me.” Through certain aspects of his repertoire, through his phrasing, this is certainly his place.
This is particularly true in that he often plays with another jazzy trumpet player, Erik Truffaz, for example, and soon Dave Douglas. This may be why he has repeatedly been asked to contribute to many recordings, often singers: Sting, Matthieu Chedid, Arthur H, Thomas Fersen, Vincent Delerm, Jeanne Cherhal...
But he has no intention of being limited to a single style. The quintet he has today changes with moods and circumstances: “We recently played at La Cigale in Paris. It is very rock ’n’ roll in his history and its acoustics: music can’t refuse such an invitation!”

Ibrahim wants to keep his freedom, his right to juggle with styles but without engaging in nonsense. A ‘carte blanche’ took him to Théâtre du Garde-chasse at Les Lilas near Paris, where he gave a concert of classical Arabic music with guest virtuosos. Part of the evening was dedicated to this culture’s standards: “I play them according to tradition; which it would be inconceivable to flout. But I composed other pieces and that leaves far more freedom; you can be inventive and innovative. The idea of ‘world music’ is twofold: Arabic music can now look to the West, take on colours from outside influences, incorporate ways of playing and stylistic effects it then appropriates. This helps go back to the mystical dimension of music.”
Throughout his life, Ibrahim Maalouf has thrived on this oscillation between East and West: “I was born in Beirut and used to spend four months each year in Lebanon while going to school in France. I speak Arabic with my mother; I wonder which language I should use with my daughter. My first CD was called Diasporas. I regularly return to the effervescent Lebanese musical scene, between Zeid Hamdan, who explores electro composition, and Ziad Al Rahbani, who is truly a monument.”

The Fund helped this artist work and make himself known: “The welcome I received there was very important; it gave me confidence and especially it allowed me to meet those who gave me work: my impresario and my record label. I had to take out a loan to produce my recordings and create my label, Mi’ster, and that changed my life! I was able to cross paths with others, Émile Parisien and Thomas Enhco; and have just discovered the SACEM Action Fund’s latest new talents with whom I shared a genuine musical experience at L’Alhambra: the violinist Fiona Monbet and the guitarist and singer Benjamin Siksou. They are sincerity personified!”

The SACEM Action Fund is very pleased to announce that Ibrahim Maalouf has won the Victoires Jazz 2010 in the category ‘instrumental French revelation of the year’ (Prix Frank Ténot).

• 1980: Born in Beirut
• 2003: Wins the Maurice André contest and decides to stop music; this meeting with Maurice André made him change his mind.
• 2006: Meets Alejandra Norambuena Skira (SACEM Action Fund).
• 2010: On 3 September, he invites Dave Douglas and some twenty other musicians to the Jazz Festival of La Villette.