Dhafer Youssef ( ar, ظافر يوسف; born 19 November 1967) is a Tunisian composer, singer and
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
player.
Biography
Dhafer Youssef was born in
Téboulba
Téboulba ( ar, طبلبة) is a town in the Sahel region of Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, ...
(a small village of coastal Tunisia); his grandfather was a
muezzin
The muezzin ( ar, مُؤَذِّن) is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer ( ṣalāt) five times a day ( Fajr prayer, Zuhr prayer, Asr prayer, Maghrib prayer and Isha prayer) at a mosque. The muezzin plays an important r ...
. He calls the radio "the most important school" for him.
He developed an interest in jazz at an early age and clandestinely listened to it during his education at a
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
ic school. He later left Tunisia to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
or
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. He also works in avant-garde and world music where he has been nominated for awards. He has released six albums of his own and created notable work with
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
n trumpeter
Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu ( sc, Pàulu; born 10 February 1961) is an Italian jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, as well as a composer and arranger of music.
Career
Born in Berchidda, Sardinia, he picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the ba ...
and the Norwegian guitarist
Eivind Aarset
Eivind Aarset (born 23 March 1961) is a Norwegian guitarist who has worked with Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjørnstad, Andy Sheppard, Mike Mainieri, Arild Andersen, Abraham Laboriel, Dhafer Youssef, Django Bates, and N ...
. He has an affinity for the
music of India and
Nordic music
Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions of Nordic countries, especially Scandinavian. The Nordic countries are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
The many regions of the Nordic countries share certain traditions, many of whic ...
. He was a guest artist on the Norwegian jazz artist
Bugge Wesseltoft
Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft (born 1 February 1964) is a Norwegian jazz pianist, composer, and producer, son of jazz guitarist Erik Wesseltoft.
Career
In 1989, Wesseltoft collaborated with the Knut Riisnæs Quartet and was soon after ...
's album ''FiLM iNG''.
Youssef has performed with
Ustad Zakir Hussain
Ustad Zakir Hussain (born 9 March 1951) is an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer and film actor. He is the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002, ...
,
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various ...
,
Uri Caine
Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956, Philadelphia, United States) is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.
Biography
Early years
The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, and poet Shulamith Wechter Caine, Caine began ...
,
Tigran Hamasyan
Tigran Hamasyan ( hy, Տիգրան Համասյան; born July 17, 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist and composer. He plays mostly original compositions, which are strongly influenced by the Armenian folk tradition, often using its scales and mod ...
,
Markus Stockhausen
Markus Stockhausen (born May 2, 1957) is a German trumpeter and composer. His recordings and performances have typically alternated between jazz and chamber or opera music, the latter often in collaboration with his father, composer Karlheinz Sto ...
,
Nguyên Lê
Nguyên Lê (Vietnamese: ''Lê Thành Nguyên''; born 14 January 1959) is a French jazz musician and composer of Vietnamese ancestry. His main instrument is guitar, and he also plays bass guitar and guitar synthesizer.
He has released albums ...
,
Omar Sosa
Omar Sosa (born April 10, 1965) is a jazz pianist from Cuba.
Biography
A native of Camagüey, Cuba, Sosa studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte. In the 1980s he started the band Tributo, recording alb ...
and
Hüsnü Şenlendirici.
Youssef is one of the ambassadors to
Music Traveler, together with Billy Joel, Hans Zimmer, John Malkovich, Sean Lennon, Adrien Brody and more.
In 2001, he recorded ''Electric Sufi'' with the ex-
Sugar Hill Gang and
Tackhead
Tackhead (styled TACK>>HEAD, sometimes known as Fats Comet) is an industrial hip-hop group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, in ...
rhythm section of
Will Calhoun
William Calhoun (born July 22, 1964) is an American drummer who is a member of the rock band Living Colour.
Career
Calhoun was born in the Bronx, New York. He moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with a de ...
and
Doug Wimbish
Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bass player, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang ...
.
In 2015, Youssef opened the
Sligo Jazz project with a quartet act at the Hawk's Well Theatre at
Connacht
Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Del ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
[
Youssef released ''Diwan of Beauty and Odd'' in 2016 which won quite a bit of praise from critics.
]
Discography
Solo albums
* 1999: ''Malak'' (Enja
Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971.
The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Ja ...
)
* 2001: ''Electric Sufi'' (Enja)
* 2003: ''Digital Prophecy'' ( Justin Time)
* 2006: ''Divine Shadows'' ( Jazzland)
* 2007: ''Glow'' (Material), with Wolfgang Muthspiel
Wolfgang Muthspiel (born 2 March 1965) is an Austrian jazz guitarist and record label owner. He is the brother of musician Christian Muthspiel.
Music career
When he was six, he began playing violin, and at fourteen he moved on to classical gui ...
* 2010: ''Abu Nawas Rhapsody'' ( EmArcy)
* 2013: ''Birds Requiem'' (Okeh
Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...
) (FR: #191)
* 2016: ''Diwan of Beauty and Odd'' (Okeh) (FR: #105)
* 2018: ''Sounds of Mirrors''
* 2023: ''Street of Minarets ''
Collaborations
* 1997: ''Blue Planet – Peace for Kabul'' (Blue Flame World Music), with Lenny MacDowell and Hakim Ludin
* 1998: ''hot ROOM'' (Extraplatte), also featuring Otto Lechner, Wolfgang Puschnig
Wolfgang Puschnig (born 21 May 1956 in Klagenfurt, Austria) is an Austrian jazz musician (saxophone, flute, bass clarinet) and composer.
Biography
After his studies of saxophone and flute at the Vienna Conservatory Puschnig was the founding ...
, Achim Tang
* 2003: ''Exile'' (Enja), with Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon ( he, גלעד עצמון, ; born 9 June 1963) is a British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer.
As a musician, he is best known as a saxophonist and bandleader. His instruments include the saxophone, acco ...
& The Orient House Ensemble feat. Reem Kelani
Reem Kelani (born 1963) is a British Palestinian musician, born in Manchester, England. Initially influenced by the jazz music her father played on his record player, her interest in Palestinian music was sparked by the music at a family wedd ...
& Dhafer Youssef
* 2005: ''Odem (with Wolfgang Puschnig and Jatinder Thakur)'' (EmArcy), with Wolfgang Puschnig
Wolfgang Puschnig (born 21 May 1956 in Klagenfurt, Austria) is an Austrian jazz musician (saxophone, flute, bass clarinet) and composer.
Biography
After his studies of saxophone and flute at the Vienna Conservatory Puschnig was the founding ...
and Jatinder Thakur
* 2006: ''Homescape'' ( ACT), with Nguyên Lê Duos Paolo Fresu
* 2008: ''Jo & Co'' (Universal Music Polska), with Anna Maria Jopek
Anna Maria Jopek (born 14 December 1970) is a Polish vocalist, songwriter, and improviser. She represented Poland in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Ale jestem" and finished 11th out of 25 participating acts; and in 2002, she co ...
feat. Richard Bona
Richard Bona (born 28 October 1967) is a Cameroon-born American multi-instrumentalist and singer.
Early life
Bona Penda Nya Yuma Elolo was born in Minta, Cameroon, into a family of musicians, which enabled him to start learning music from a y ...
and Mino Cinelu
* 2008: ''Latitudini – Omaggio Alla World Music'' (Casa Del Jazz), with Paolo Fresu and Eivind Aarset
* 2017: ''Luna'' (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy (born 20 February 1964) is a British composer and saxophonist. He is considered one of the greatest modern jazz saxophonists.
Career
Ballamy was born in Guildford, Surrey, and educated at George Abbot School, Guildford, from 19 ...
And Dave McKean Featuring Dhafer Youssef, Emilia Mårtensson With Stian Carstensen, Stuart Hall, Matthew Sharp (Feral Records)
References
External links
*
*
Dhafer Youssef – 39th Gülay (To Istanbul)
on YouTube
BBC – Awards for World Music 2006 – Dhafer Youssef
An All About Jazz article mentioning him
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Youssef, Dhafer
1967 births
Living people
Jazzland Recordings (1997) artists
Tunisian jazz composers
Enja Records artists
EmArcy Records artists
Justin Time Records artists
Okeh Records artists
ACT Music artists
Tunisian oud players
Modal jazz oud players