''The Sultan's Picnic'' is an album by the Lebanese

oud The oud ( ; , ) is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument (a chordophone in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification of instruments), usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have ...

player and composer

Rabih Abou-Khalil Rabih Abou-Khalil (, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese ...

, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the

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 Jap ...

label.Enja Records main series discography
accessed June 18, 2018
accessed June 18, 2018

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by Kurt Keefner stated "Composer and oudist Rabih Abou-Khalil generates variety and interest by bringing aboard different guest musicians for each album. The personnel on ''Sultan's Picnic'' is so similar to that of ''

Blue Camel ''Blue Camel'' is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil. The album fuses traditional Arabic music with jazz. It was recorded in 1992 and released on the Enja label.

'' that one might expect them to sound similar. But there's a key difference in the presence of Howard Levy ... a talented harmonica player who has done a lot of offbeat work ... Despite the power of Charlie Mariano on alto sax and Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, this album is dominated by the idioms of the harmonica, specifically the jazzy, quirky, lackadaisical idiom popularized by Levy's work with the Flecktones".

Track listing

All compositions by Rabih Abou-Khalil # "Sunrise in Montreal" – 8:14 # "Solitude" – 6:32 # "Dog River" – 4:25 # "Moments" – 6:17 # "Lamentation" – 8:59 # "Nocturne au Villaret" – 6:33 # "The Happy Sheik" – 6:02 # "Snake Soup" – 4:28

Personnel

– oud, bass oud *

Howard Levy Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American musician. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, he "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century." In 1988, Le ...

– harmonica *

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he w ...

– flugelhorn, trumpet *

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophone, saxophonist who focused on the alto saxophone, alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biogra ...

– alto saxophone *

Michel Godard Michel Godard (born October 3, 1960, Héricourt, France) is a French avant-garde jazz and classical musician. He plays tuba and the predecessor of the tuba, a brass instrument known as the serpent. Career At 18, Godard was a member of the Phi ...

– tuba, serpent *

Steve Swallow Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. ...

– bass *

Mark Nauseef Mark Nauseef (born June 11, 1953) is an American drummer and percussionist who has enjoyed a varied career, ranging from rock music during the 1970s with his time as a member of the Ian Gillan Band and, temporarily with Thin Lizzy when Brian D ...

– drums *

Milton Cardona Milton Cardona (November 21, 1944 – September 19, 2014) was a percussionist, vocalist and conga player from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Milton Cardona made well over 1000 recordings, nine of which won Grammies. His career and was highly influence ...

– congas *Nabil Khaiat - frame drums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultan's Picnic, The Rabih Abou-Khalil albums 1994 albums Enja Records albums