Ibrahim Maalouf

Sprung from a family of musicians, Ibrahim Maalouf has spent his life absorbing different musical styles and traditions. On paper, this sounds like a cliché; heard live, it's a knockout. Starting out in big band jazz, Maalouf began to explore electo-jazz after meeting the late Franco-Peruvian singer Lhasa de Sela. Before long, he was in demand as a session musician in world and jazz circles; his encounters with Amadou et Mariam, Salif Keita, Mathieu Chédid and others each left an impring on his sound, which he developed on his 'Dia' trilogy of albums: 'Diaspora' (2007), 'Diachronism' (2009) and 'Diagnostic' (2011). Rather than try to justice to his music with a string of clumsy genre labels (postcolonial Ethio-jazz fusion, anyone?), we urge you to go listen to it at the Olympia on March 24.