Music and Arts in Malta in July

The month of July is a great month for music and art lovers in Malta. The Malta Arts Festival lasts a whole month, featuring artist for all tastes, the classic Jazz Festival is also taking place in its most beautiful environment.

Yesterday evening, we went to listen to the concert of Dhafer Youssef 4tet. His group is composed of Kristjian Randalu – Piano; Phil Donkin – Upright Bass; Chander Sardjoe – Drums.

While rooted in the mystical music of Islamic Sufism, Dhafer Youssef’s music draws from different influences including jazz, electronics, and rock. With his deeply affecting vocal style, a straight approach on the oud (the Arabic lute), charming Arab-colored compositions, spacey electric lounge vibes and a variety of fusion sounds, Tunesian Dhafer Youssef is among today’s shooting stars in this crossover field. “It’s music that tethers Third World beats to First World technology, a thin cross-cultural membrane connecting the ancient with the modern, the sacred with the profane,” Time Out wrote in fall 2002 when Youssef’s band played The Spitz in London. Wellknown British critic Chris Parker wrote: “It is the background of percussion and electronic sounds that makes this music so distinctive. Juxtaposing gently slinky pieces with jaunty scurries and occasional funky shuffles, the rhythm section simultaneously imaginatively embellishes a fascinating and entirely original set from a highly individual composer and instrumentalist.”

The concert took place in the most beautiful courtyard of the Grand Master Palace in Valletta. The charming music of the quartet was reflected by its history loaded stones, enchanting our spirits. Unfortunately, some minor events tampered the pleasure of the audience: the sound system was not up to the standard of the musicians, forcing them to stop their music several times for the technicians to fix it, which they never really managed. We also experienced the corso of our local MP’s leaving their Parliament sitting rather strangly disturbing the concert, Dhafer taking it with his humour and cracking jokes about them. Needless to mention that none of these important MP’s decided to stay to listen to some beautiful Arab music (I know it is right now not the season for it in Malta).

In any case, I warmly recommend you to look up Dhafer’s music and take some time to listen to it. I am pretty sure that you will be enchanted…

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