I miss working in a record store. So much good music was hipped to me by colleagues and buyers, even customers, that is was a joy to work there.

Also, handling the actual goods could make you curious as well. I remember being intrigued by My Morning Jacket's first album cover, which made me play it.

Same with Rabih Abou-Khalil's Yara. The fancy digipack was so beautiful, I just had to put the disc on to find out what artist would so elaborately embellish the cover of his release. THe picture does not do justice to the elaborate imprints that grace the actual cover.



And I was so taken aback by what I heard. Melancholy dripped out of the speakers and I just sat there, holding the cover, unable to go back to work for a while.

As I had never heard of the man, I did some backtracking and found out a string of releases that I have come to love over the years. Why? Just because this man's music is so broad, but without ever losing direction. Because his music has got the power to touch me emotionally in ways not so many musicians/composers can.






Here, the desription of allmusic.com;



The musical traditions of the Arabic world are fused with jazz improvisation and European classical techniques by Lebanese-born oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil.

The CMJ New Music Report noted that Abou-Khalil has "consistently sought to create common ground between the Arab music mileau of his roots and the more global musical world of today."

Down Beat praised Abou-Khalil's music as "a unique hybrid that successfully spans the world of traditional Arabic music and jazz."

Although he learned to play the oud, a fretless, Lebanese lute, as a youngster, Abou-Khalil temporarily switched to the classical flute, which he studied at the Academy of Music after moving to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978. In an attempt to explore new ways to play Arabic music, he returned to the oud and began to incorporate techniques more often played on jazz guitar.

In the early-'90s, Abou-Khalil was commissioned by Southwest German radio to write two pieces that were debuted in a performance with the Kronos String Quartet at the Stuttgart Jazz Summit in 1992, and recorded with the Belanescu Quartet four years later.
Abou-Khalil has worked with a mixture of Arabic, Indian, and American jazz musicians, including alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune, frame drummer and percussionist Glen Valez, conga player Milton Cardona, harmonica ace Howard Levy, and bassists Glen Moore and Steve Swallow.

Testing, testing. A sample from Amazon.com of one of the songs of Yara.

On A Bus

GooeyTheHamster said:

Well, it does't work as I thought it would, but at least it takes you to the right page!

These samples frustrate the hell out of me, but what I can hear sounds good. I might check that out.

Do you prefer selling music to selling books, Gooey?

MarieLouise said:

I like both equally, but as i have sold music the longest, my favourite is now books.

Also, the music industry is changing. I think most music will be distributed, maybe even already IS distributed through the net, legally OR illegally.
So I wish I was still working at that particular book store in Amsterdam... cuz books will be books.