News & Updates — oud

Sandy Bull was one of my favorites of the '60s/'70s "folk" musicians, although his music was much, much more than your typical "folkie" thing. Playing a variety of stringed instruments (guitar, banjo, oud, pedal steel, etc), his music was informed by various international folk traditions, modal jazz, Indian ragas, classical, blues, gospel, psychedelia and even Chuck Berry! He sometimes had percussionists (such as Billy Higgins or Denis Charles) as well as his own system of live tape overdubs and rhythm-machines. Check out his early Vanguard albums for some early excursions into psychedelic world fusion! Bull's 1963 debut, Fantasias For Guitar...

One of my very favorite musicians, Ahmed Abdul-Malik fused North African and Middle Eastern music with jazz beginning in the late 50s. He grew up in musical Bed-Stuy with Randy Weston, Cecil Payne, Bilal Abduraman, Sam Gill and others (and Max Roach was in the neighborhood). He played bass on some great mid-'50's Thelonious Monk records before making his visionary albums Jazz Sahara (1958) and East Meets West (1960), masterly blends of Middle Eastern rhythms and bebop, mixing Arabic percussion, Abdul-Malik's oud and Johnny Griffin flyin' on top. They are essential early "world music" fusions. He continued making great albums...