Ruggero Tajè & Ahmed Ben Dhiab - Live Concerts ( 1990-2006) CD released in 2021 DNN 025 C

 

Ruggero Tajè and Ahmed Ben Dhiab is a duo with a consolidated musical relationship. Ruggero is one of the masters of Italian electronics who also has a solid jazz background (he was in the past an effective jazz drummer) whilst Ahmed is a 360 degrees artist (poet, painter, singer). In the past they released together a cassette (Conversation musicale Orient-Occident) and a CD (Passion) both with the voice of Ahmed on the musical tapestries of Ruggero. Here things become more complex, we may speak of  a kind of ethnic-jazz with electronics.  First of all we can admire one the artistic domains of Ahmed given that the front of the cover reproduces one of his paintings. Then we have to say that the CD contains a bunch of  live recordings during concerts held in the period 1990 to 2006 in France, Spain and Mexico. The artists involved in this multi-formed  touring group are percussionist Carlo Rizzo who collaborated between others with Michael Riessler, Benat Achiary and

Valentin Clastrier, oud player and singer Nabil Khalidi from Morocco, accordionist Raul Barbosa from Argentina and well known French saxophonist Michel Doneda. Track one performs murmuring vocals by Ahmed with sinuous sax by Michel Doneda over an uniform electronic background. Track two is also relaxed with electronic percussions  Arab singing by Ahmed and nice solos by Michael Doneda. Track three is longer and gives a larger evidence to Ruggero and his electronic treated guitars with the voice of Ahmed and the sax in a background position. Track four is more percussive and dominated by sax. Track five starts as a classic Arab song with the Oud of Nabil Khalidi in evidence but afterwards the accordion of Raoul Barbosa comes in.....Track six, seven , eight and ten are based on efficient percussions by Carlo Rizzo that sometimes empathize the singing of Ahmed and somewhere else dialogate with the electronic variations by Ruggero. Track nine for Oud and Voice gives an idea of a classical Arab song. Finally track eleven is an  electronic mishmash dominated by the sax of Michel Doneda.