Ibrahim Maalouf

Ibrahim Maalouf (Arabic: ابراهيم معلوف‎‎; born 5 December 1980) is a French-Lebanese trumpet player and teacher, composer and arranger. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and now lives in Paris, France.
Maalouf has composed music since he was very young. He presented his compositions for the first time in 1999. His first group "Farah" had a relatively strong Oriental Jazz flavor because he was accompanied by a saxophone, a ney (Middle-Eastern end-blown flute), a transverse flute, a piano, a double bass, a guitar, a buzuq (a long-necked fretted lute related to the Greek bouzouki) and Arabic percussions. A concert recording by this group was broadcast on several music channels between 2004 and 2005. The group did some studio tests, but never produced an album.

In 2004, his encounter with Lhasa de Sela opened the doors of electro music to him. His collaboration with pop and rock singers made him discover other musical styles apart from jazz, classical music and Arabic music. Gradually, Ibrahim’s compositions began to reflect a more contemporary style. In 2006, after exploring many different musical paths, he met Alejandra Norambuena Skira (from the SACEM’s Action Fund), who introduced him to Jean-Louis Perrier. Jean-Louis helped him to form the band with whom he gave a concert on February 12, 2006 at the Paris New Morning Jazz Club. From that moment on, he became a recognized figure of the Paris Oriental Electro Jazz Scene.

His music and his trumpet playing are strongly inspired by his Arabic culture, but the instruments around him (bass, electric guitar, drums, Arabic percussion and vibraphones) and the musicians with whom he performs give a more contemporary rock, electro and Jazz-funk flavor to his music. His concerts are generally built around stimulating music that makes people want to get up and dance. But there is always a short, more contemplative, mystical interlude during his concerts, which he calls "a collective universal prayer". Maalouf gets a lot of his inspiration from his culture of origin. This subject has been explored in the documentary Souffle! (Blow), directed by Christophe Trahand and produced by Cocottes Minutes between 2005 and 2006. Christophe Trahand followed Ibrahim for several months in pursuit of the key to his inspiration and to explore his relationship with his native country and the distance that separates him from it.