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Ibrahim Maalouf is a uniter. Born in war-torn Lebanon and raised in France, the trumpet superstar has spent much of his remarkable career bringing together disparate cultures, countries, and collaborators through his extraordinary gifts and relentless work ethic. With his captivating new album, Trumpets of Michel Ange, Maalouf finds himself building a new kind of bridge, though: one between generations.
“On a symbolic level, this album is a celebration of love and family and the things that parents pass on to their children,” Maalouf explains. “On a more literal level, it’s a chance for me to turn my father’s vision into reality, to share his genius with the world.”
Indeed, Trumpets of Michel Ange is more than just a record; it’s also the name of Maalouf’s new wide-ranging initiative to make the quarter tone trumpet his father invented accessible to players around the world through a line of instruments, lessons, and recordings. Crafted with an additional fourth valve, the quarter tone trumpet enables artists to weave Middle Eastern and Western scales together in previously impossible ways, and each of the tracks on Trumpets of Michel Ange was written to be performed on the instrument. The result is a sound that transcends genres and borders. The performances, meanwhile, are nothing short of intoxicating, with Maalouf leading an all-star band in a series of raw, freewheeling sessions captured live without any overdubs or edits. The result is a joyful testament to the power of the human spirit, to our irrepressible drive to create and connect, to our innate desire to carry on the legacy of those who came before and leave the world just a little better than we found it.
“My father dreamed that one day every player in the world could have their own quarter tone trumpet,” Maalouf recalls. “Now that I’ve built such a large audience with mine, I feel like I can finally help make that dream come true.”
It’s hard to imagine a better ambassador for the instrument than Maalouf. After escaping a deadly civil war in Beirut, he spent his formative years in France, where he earned a reputation as one of the world’s most promising young classical instrumentalists with wins at a string of prestigious international competitions. Maalouf had a voracious musical appetite, though, and the more he bristled against the weight and strictures of classical orthodoxy, the more he found himself intrigued by jazz, soul, hip-hop, and Middle Eastern music, along with the limitless possibilities that came from blending them all together.
“As a teenager, everyone would give me weird looks when I showed up to competitions with my quarter tone trumpet,” Maalouf explains, “but then I’d win and I’d try to explain that the instrument was magic. I’d say, ‘It’s the same as yours, but it has an extra valve that opens up blues and jazz and all kinds of ethnic music from around the world.’”
And so Maalouf began composing his own songs on the instrument, releasing a series of 16 critically acclaimed albums that would eventually establish him as a household name in France, where he’s been dubbed a Knight of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Praised as a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Maalouf has performed in more than 40 countries; sold out arenas from Paris to Istanbul; been welcomed into the inner circle of legendary producer/composer Quincy Jones; raised millions for charitable causes around the world; and collaborated with everyone from Wynton Marsalis and Jon Batiste (who introduced him as “a living legend” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) to Josh Groban and Sting (who asked him to play at the reopening of the Bataclan after the tragic 2015 terrorist attack there). In the last few years alone, Maalouf, has earned back-to-back GRAMMY nominations, shared the stage with A$AP Rocky and J Balvin, composed the score for legendary French director Claude Lelouche’s latest film, served on juries at Cannes and the Deauville American Film Festival, performed at the Hollywood Bowl alongside Stevie Wonder, John Legend, and Jacob Collier, played for an audience of six million in front of the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day, and released a collaborative record with Angelique Kidjo that prompted love everywhere from Rolling Stone to NPR.
“Doing the unexpected has always been what excites me most,” says Maalouf, who’s sold nearly one million albums worldwide. “When I was a kid, I used to put the radio on and go from station to station trying to play along with whatever kind of music I heard, whether it was jazz or rap or pop or classical or Arabic or Indian or electronic or salsa. It feels like I do the same thing now, just on a much larger scale.”
Take a listen to Trumpets of Michel Ange and it’s clear that Maalouf’s excitement and curiosity are as vibrant as ever. Built around a mesmerizing sonic storyline, the album captures the journey of two young lovers who come together to create a family, following them from the celebration of their marriage and commitment to each other to the birth of their children and the bittersweet farewell of their kids reaching adulthood.
“Why do we marry? Why do we start families? Why do we sacrifice for our children?” Maalouf asks. “It’s about love. No matter your religion, your nationality, your politics, it’s all about love.”
It’s easy to hear that love flowing through Trumpets of Michel Ange. Festive album opener “The Proposal” grew out of an impromptu jam session at Maalouf’s own wedding; blissful lead single “Fly With Me” embraces the transformative moment when two become one; the alternatingly triumphant and tender “The Smile Of Rita” (named for Maalouf’s third daughter) revels in the beauty of raising children; and the meditative “Stranger” honors the journey of Maalouf’s father, a humble farmer who turned to music in search of a better future for himself and his family.
“I named the album and the instrument line and the new academy we’re starting Trumpets of Michel Ange in honor of my father,” Maalouf explains. “When he first came to France, he found shelter and work in one of the oldest churches in Paris, and that’s where he developed his quarter tone trumpet. When I was younger, I used to think of him like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. This instrument is his masterpiece, and I hope everyone gets to experience it.”
It's just one more way Maalouf is using music to bring people together, to mix cultures and genres and generations through the power of song, to unite us all in harmony.
For more information contact Stefan.Hayes@v2benelux.com
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