Drab : Zeen

"The jazz influences of Paris meld with the belly dance rhythms of Beirut in this project. Oud , sax , violin, riq and bendir all give a heavy eastern influence that is quite fascinating and just as one settles to the beat , it will diversify into a smooth jazz feel. Adventurous and different."
- Roger Marbeck

BIOGRAPHY:
The sax player, percussionist and composer Toufic Farroukh plays jazz with Orient influences. Though he lives in Paris, he still keeps his eyes trained on the cultural scene of his native Lebanon, influences he uses scrupulously in his music. At a young age, Farroukh was already studying sax. He completed his musical education in Paris.

His debut CD 'Ali on Broadway' was released in 1994. Four years later his second, 'Little Secrets', came out and the flavour and color of the Orient can easily be recognized in his jazz motifs on it.

Farroukh's third CD 'Drab Zeen' ,on which free improvisations are the main point, is a tribute to a friend.

In the East meets Jazz-program the emphasis is on jazz musicians from the Middle East who have incorporated their roots in their music. Though none of them still live in their native countries, their origin is an important element in their music and their playing. Often this is also these musicians' motive: the possibility of fusing two musical worlds and really also two lives.