Rabih Lahoud – MASAA

Masaa is Arabic for “evening”—that time of day when outlines are still visible, yet much is already blurred by the twilight. This is also how one might describe the improvisational music of the Masaa Quartet, led by singer Rabih Lahoud, who was born in Lebanon in 1982 and has lived in Germany for many years. Together with Reentko Dirks (guitar), Demian Kappenstein (drums), and Marcus Rust (trumpet), Lahoud celebrates the coming together that often takes place in the evening. It is the translation of shared storytelling and narration into a piece of music; it is a defiance of boundaries—the imaginary ones between people, but also the concrete ones between nations. Together, they bring together the classical music of Europe with the jazz of the USA; the connection between the two genres is, in turn, the meandering, melismatic melody of the Arabic maqam and the distinctive style of Lahoud’s native language, in which he sings the songs.