The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), in partnership with the Arts and Humanities division, presents Boom.Diwan and multi–Grammy Award-winning pianist Arturo O’Farrill in a world premiere concert of spiritual jazz on Saturday, December 10 at 7:30pm at The Black Box.
Following the success of the 2019’s Cuban Khaleeji Project, commissioned by The Arts Center and recently revived in three sold-out concerts in New York, Ghazi Al-Mulaifi and his ensemble, Boom.Diwan, collaborate once again with the world-renowned pianist Arturo O’Farrill. UAE audiences will have the opportunity to experience the rhythms and sounds of two seafaring cultures, Khaleeji and Afro Cuban, coming together for an intimate concert that features a Kuwaiti Sea Arts (bahri) percussion ensemble and Afro Latin jazz musicians, as the finale of a weeklong composing and recording residency.
The music, part of Al-Mulaifi’s research as an applied ethnomusicologist and NYUAD Visiting Professor of Music, is the result of a shared dialogue with his friend and long-time collaborator O’Farrill, recorded for a forthcoming album.
Al-Mulaifi’s work with Boom.Diwan explores the encounters and artistic exchanges with artists from other traditions. This concert draws from the story of migration and cultural exchange of rhythms, melodies and instruments cross-fertilizing through sea trade and creative residencies and technology in current times. The links between the Arab world, Africa, and the Caribbean, which have existed for centuries, are reactivated during this mesmerizing performance of original compositions and arrangements.
Executive Artistic Director at NYUAD Arts Center Bill Bragin commented: “The Arts Center has had a powerful collaboration with Dr. Ghazi Al-Mulaifi since he first came to campus to present the traditional Kuwaiti bahri group, MayoufMejally with the NYUAD Institute. Since then, he has formed Boom.Diwan who performed at Hekayah, and been an anchor of the Cuban Khaleeji Project, which led to his joining the NYUAD Music Program as visiting faculty. While here, he has created high impact collaborations with NduduzoMakhathini and Jean-Michel Pilc, and central to our examination of ways in which traditional Khaleeji culture can extend its dialog with contemporary approaches from around the world.”
Bragin added: “We are thrilled to host this special concert with Arturo O’Farrill, one of the world’s leading pianists and musical thinkers, as the culmination of a recording project born of NYU Abu Dhabi.”
