WOMAD

Kamal Musallam Group with Sokoor Al Magabeel

From United Arab Emirates

Kamal Musallam, the founder of Arabic Jazz groups Kamal Musallam Trio and Kamal Musalam Group, has been expressing himself through music since the age of 3.
Born in Kuwait, and encouraged by his parents for art and music, he started out playing the piano and accordion and then picked up the guitar when he was 9. ??Despite exploring his other talent for architecture by studying in France and Jordan, Musallam soon realised his true ?passion lay in music. It was spurred on by four years in France attending festivals and concerts, while during his mid-20s, he discovered the likes of Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, George Benson and John McLaughlin through pirated cassettes - the only resource available to him then. ??Musallam developed his skills playing the guitar and oud and began to fuse together the influences that inspired him - mainly Jazz and Arabic music. ??The release of his first album in 2003, called On a Jordan River's Side, was highly acclaimed and appreciated on an ?international scale as well as by his hero Pat Metheny. It was released under his own label K&G.
Kamal played along a big list on renowned artists, among whish are Randy Brecker, Ada Rovatti, Stanely Jordan, Anne Ducros, David Reinhardt, Jorge Pardo (Paco De Lucia Septet), Francisco Molina, and others??In the last year or so he set up the Dubai-based Kamal Musallam Trio with Rony Afif on drums and Elie Afif on bass. The band memebers are top-level musicians who have supported a long list of international artists that performed in the Middle-East during the last 5 years. ??Musallam is presently playing a new hybrid of the guitar and oud called the Glissentar, created by Godin. And he has just developed with Ibanez guitars a new design of a signature model mixing jazz guitar and nylon fretless guitar.
(Biography supplied by artist)
http://www.kamalmusallam.net