Shiraz by Dhafer Youssef

Released on 14/11/2025 by ACT Music
Main artists: Dhafer Youssef
Genre: Contemporary Jazz

Digital booklet

Available in

24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

Two years after releasing the experimental superproduction Street of Minarets, a mixed bag backed by jazz all-stars like Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller and Ambrose Akinmusire, who opened up his naturally syncretic universe to even more influences, nearly to the point of oversaturation, Tunisian oudist and vocalist Dhafer Youssef has returned with his debut record as a leader for the ACT label in the same poetic, intimate, and spiritual register that has helped him build his reputation ever since the 2000s, following the groundbreaking release of Electric Sufi. Composed in honor of his wife, director Shiraz Fradi, to help her overcome her recent cancer diagnosis, for Youssef, Shiraz is both a declaration of love and a profession of faith in the therapeutic virtues and consolation that music has to offer.

Backing Dhafer Youssef is a small group of cosmopolitan musicians, playing together for the first time: French guitarist Nguyên Lê, originally from Vietnam, Spanish pianist Daniel García (student of Danilo Pérez), Austrian trumpet player Mario Rom (leader of the Interzone trio), and a rhythm section featuring bassist Swaéli Mbappé and drummer Tao Ehrlich, all steeped in the jazz and afro-funk influences of the Parisian music scene. These musicians’ deep bond is set to music by this series of melancholic, prayerlike modal pieces, often organized in the form of mini-suites that create meaningful opportunities for dramatic exploration.

True to form, Youssef tends to pair the oud’s arid sound and the bewitching flourishes of his chanting with the diaphanous, gossamer sonorities of Mario Rom’s minimalist trumpet (harking back to his previous collaborations with Paolo Fresu, Jon Hassel, and Markus Stockhausen), exploring intimate, ultramelodic territories that can be meditative and spiritual (“The Epistle of Love,” “Zakir Bhai Eternal Longing”) or otherwise sentimental (“Rose Fragrance”), all while giving himself space and permission to improvise, beautifully highlighting the catlike versatility of his elegant, fluid rhythm section. Abolishing all distinctions between styles and cultures, this profoundly cohesive album with solid formal footing is incontestably one of Dhafer Youssef’s most profound and polished to date. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

Shiraz

Dhafer Youssef

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

From £10.83/month

Rose Fragrance