Understanding the differences between the West and the East through the music of Ibrahim Maalouf

I have been following the French-Lebanese trumpeter and composer Ibrahim Maalouf since just a few years. I exactly do not remember but I think (thanks to Spotify algorithms:) I first discovered him in Piers Faccini's "The Beggar and the Thief" song in which I was amazed by the trumpet he played. Although his trumpet part was short, I quickly realized that there was something different, tasty and familiar in his way of playing the trumpet. 

Ibrahim Maalouf (Source: Wikipedia)

Actually, his songs have microtones and these are not known in western music where the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B and also five more half tones (I mean flats[♭] and sharps[#]) are used. All in all, the western music is based on these 12 tones. However, in eastern music there is more than these half tones, i.e., quarter tones. As though it might look weird from the western perspective, these microtones express different emotions. They are widely applied in middle eastern music such as Turkish and Arabic classical music, by using some musical patterns which are called maqams. These maqams such as rast or hijaz determine the set of tones to be used including quarter tones. You can find a funny scene explaining the difference between western and eastern music from the film Yahşi Batı of the Turkish comedian and actor Cem Yılmaz below. 

The prodigy of Ibrahim Maalouf is that he mixes these eastern quarter tones and western jazz music elements in his songs ingeniously. To this end, he plays a quarter tone trumpet which was invented by his father Nassim Maalouf. I have to admit that he is really lucky, since he was born into a family full of artists. His father is a trumpet player, his mother is a pianist and also his uncle is the famous writer Amin Maalouf. It shouldn't be a surprise that he chose to be an artist. On the other hand, he was not so lucky that his family fled from Lebanon to France because of the civil war when he was a child. I can always feel the signs of this war through the emotions that his songs create. In many of his songs, such as Beirut (given below), you can understand the sorrow of the war and feel the wounds he received from this war in his childhood.

His songs are not always as sad as Beirut. He has also more jazzy and happy songs like "Maeva in Wonderland" or "Hashish". As Ibrahim Maalouf, there are other artists trying to establish bridges between eastern and western music. For instance, the Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard uses electric microtonal guitar invented by Tolgahan Çoğulu who is a Turkish academic and musician. The difference of this microtonal guitar can be figured out by this band's great song Sleep Drifter which was inspired by the song "Kara Toprak" composed by the Turkish folk music master Aşık Veysel.

These kind of combinations always excite me in music and I think that it widens my perspective and increases my openness to different cultures of the world. What I believe is that we need to embrace the richness of different cultures more, and art holds the key to unlock the doors in our minds against the prejudice of different cultures.

Bonus: All Around The Wall - My favorite song of Ibrahim Maalouf.