Learn jazz from Tarek Yamani

Tarek Yamani performing at Atrium Lincoln Center, New York, 2018 Photo: Sachyn Mital

Ever wanted to learn the essentials of jazz improvisation? One of the region’s leaders in the field Tarek Yamani, will be conducting a three-day workshop titled Jazz Tactics and Essentials of Improvisation ahead of his solo piano performance in Sharjah. Participants will learn rhythmic awareness and harmonies as well as the art of group improv. This is a chance to learn in an intimate setting from one of the best regional musicians.

After the workshop, Yamani will present Pairings Project, a solo piano performance in which each tarab/Arabic-influenced piece is paired with an African American/jazz-influenced piece. Yamani noticed similarities in the musical pieces of his solo repertoire—rearrangements of classical Arabic, jazz, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian Samba songs—and found their connections even more evident when the pieces were paired. Yamani also discovered that the paired pieces matched not only in musical style but also in title, theme or poetic inclination. 

Some of the paired pieces include Chico Buarque’s Com Acucar Com Afeto with Darwich Al Hariri’s Muwashah Hubbi Zurni, Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life with Sayed Darwich’s Lahn Al Shayalan, Harry Warren’s You’re My Everything with Ziad Rahbani’s Bala Wala Chi and Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia with Kamel Al Khulai’s Fi Hulal Al Afrah.

Since teaching himself jazz at the age of 19, Yamani has gone on to dedicate his practice to exploring relationships between African American jazz and classical Arabic music. These relationships are most evident in his newly released album, Peninsular (2017), which fuses jazz with quarter tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula, and his second album, Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic (2014). 

30 Oct – Nov 1

Weds & Thurs, 7pm to 10pm. Friday 2pm to 5pm. Sharjah Art Foundation.

Performance is Friday 8pm to 9pm

All Sharjah Art Foundation events are free and open to the public. To register for the workshop email: performance@sharjahart.org