Jazz in Arabic Culture Excerpts
April 30
Get your early sneak peek at excerpts from the feature-length documentary, “Jazz in Arabic Culture” which will be released in early summer 2025.
These excerpts will only be available for 24 hours staring at midnight, Wednesday, April 30th as part of International Jazz Day. It is a happy accident that Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) is this year’s International Jazz Day host city.
About the Documentary:
The “Jazz in Arabic Culture” feature-length documentary examines the evolution of jazz in the 22-country Arabic region since the 1920s. Despite near constant turmoil in the region, jazz makes an early appearance mainly in Egypt, but spreads after WWII to Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, among other countries.
The documentary takes a look at the evolutionary fusing of maqam, the Arabic music tradition, and western jazz from the early jazzers to current players, jazz festivals and clubs, culminating with a look at the future of jazz in Arabic culture.
Over 30 cultural historians, jazz festival founders, and current players were interviewed for this unique documentary (the first, and only one) to ever explore the 100 years of jazz in the Arabic region.