"Kalthoum" and "Red & Black Light" are two albums paying homage to women. "KALTHOUM" is a celebration of women who have changed the course of history and whose artistic influence has impacted our lives to this day. I chose an iconic figure, a true monument in the history of the Arab people, and whose voice I have listened to most since my earliest childhood: Oum Kalthoum. With pianist Frank Woeste, we "translated" into a fairly conventional jazz style, yet one we hope is innovative due to its fusion, one of the greatest successes of the Egyptian diva: "Alf Leila Wa Leila" ("One Thousand and One Nights"). This 1969 song, composed by Baligh Hamidi, is a suite of about an hour (as was common at the time), with a 3-minute chorus and verses ranging from 5 to 25 minutes. Improvisation, in both the original and this version, plays an important role, but this suite is primarily a succession of scenes whose staging was fascinating to retranscribe. Recorded and mixed in New York with the same team as the album "Wind" (2011), which was also a tribute (to Miles Davis), it was entirely logical for me to envision "Kalthoum" as a continuation of this beautiful recording adventure with Larry Grenadier (double bass), Clarence Penn (drums), Mark Turner (saxophone), and Frank Woeste (piano).
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