Nassim Maalouf ( ar, نسيم معلوف) (born 1941 in

Kafarakab Kafarakab ( ar, كفرعقاب) (also spelled Kfarakab or Kfar Akab and pronounced "Kfara-ab" in Arabic) is the francophone spelling of the name of a village in the mountains of Lebanon. In Arabic, it means the home (Kfar: كفر) of the hawk (Ak ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

) is a classical

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

soloist particularly known for his adaptation of the trumpet to

Arabic music Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...

with the introduction of

quarter tones A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...

on the instrument.

Family

Maalouf's brother is French-Lebanese writer

Amin Maalouf Amin Maalouf (; ar, أمين معلوف; born 25 February 1949) is a Lebanese-born French"Amin ...

; their mother is Egyptian of Turkish origin and their father is a Greek Catholic. Maalouf's son,

Ibrahim Maalouf Ibrahim Maalouf ( ar, ابراهيم معلوف, ; born 5 November 1980 in Beirut) is a French-Lebanese trumpeter, producer, arranger, and composer. In 2022, he became the first Lebanese instrumentalist nominated at the Grammy Awards for his albu ...

, is a jazz trumpeter and composer.

Career

Maalouf Maalouf (alternative spellings: Maloof, Malouf, Malouff, Maluf, Malluf; Arabic: معلوف المعلوف) is an Arabic surname. Origins The Maalouf family belongs to the group of tribes known as Ghassanids that emigrated from Yemen to Houra ...

studied at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

with the great French trumpeter

Maurice André Maurice André (21 May 1933 – 25 February 2012) was a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field. He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the picc ...

, graduating in 1970. While he had by that time mastered the European classical trumpet repertoire he had for some time felt restricted by being able to play only in the major and minor scales. Although he wished to interpret the numerous Arabic modes (known as ''

maqam MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...

at'', singular ''maqam'') on his instrument, he nevertheless found this quite difficult, as the necessary "half-sharps" and "half-flats" could only be obtained via the unreliable method of modulating lip pressure. Finally, Maalouf realized that adding to his trumpet a fourth valve half the length of the second valve would allow for the production of quarter tones. Maalouf worked for two years with the craftsman Michel Wikrikaz of the Henri Selmer company in

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to produce his design of a "quarter-tone" trumpet and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

, both suitable for performing Arabic '' maqamat'' throughout the full chromatic range of the instrument. Maalouf uses his right hand to play the first three valves and the index finger of his left hand to depress the fourth valve. Maalouf's quarter-tone trumpet was not the first such instrument, however; the American jazz trumpeter

Don Ellis Donald Johnson Ellis (July 25, 1934 – December 17, 1978) was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his lif ...

and others had earlier created similar instruments. In addition to his career as trumpet soloist, Maalouf has also taught at the National Conservatory in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Maalouf's son,

(b. 1980), is also a classically trained trumpeter and plays the quarter-tone trumpet. Maalouf has released a solo CD, ''Improvisations Orientales'' (1994), on the Club Du Disque Arabe label.

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maalouf, Nassim 1941 births Living people Lebanese classical trumpeters Lebanese people of Greek descent Lebanese people of Turkish descent Conservatoire de Paris alumni 21st-century trumpeters