Houdou Nisbi

Ziad Rahbani is a giant of Lebanese music, the son of two of the biggest stars the country has ever seen: singer Fairuz and composer, producer, and musician Assi Rahbani. But Ziad Rahbani, famously hard headed and abrasive, was never relegated to his parents’ shadow, instead forging his own musical path. In this album you can hear his desire to not be limited by genre or form, passing from the honeyd “Bala Wala Shi”  (it’s his longtime collaborator Sami Hawat singing on the record) to the soulful funk of “Bisaraha,” the Balearic beats of the club-ready “Ma Tfel,” an interpretation of Mozart’s “Symphony 40 in G Minor,” or the Brazilian atmosphere of  “Bil Nisbi La Boukra Shou?” and “For Sure.” The release was curated by Lebanese DJ and record collector Ernesto Chahoud, who is always digging up nuggets and writing superbly researched liner notes.