Labyrinths by Ayman Fanous and Tomas Ulrich

Dr. Ayman Fanous attended University of Virginia with me in the early 1990s. In addition to being a genuine human being, a gad'a, an ibn nas, he was an accomplished musician and played the `uud in various venues.

He has been able to continue making music, and I was fortunate enough to get his latest album. Lately, he has been combining his classical guitar with Tomas Ulrich's cello. The latest CD is entitled Labyrinths, and its out on konnex records, konnex-records.de. I purchased my copy from squidco.com.

I've listened to it once so far. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a music critic, but the first impressions I have:

1. Solos demonstrate that each can play his instrument.
2. Most of the work is in combining the two instruments into a complementary sound.
3. Parts of it are like the "Jimi Hendrix Experience" in classical music!
4. Ayman really can do the flamenco sound well!

Updated 2008-Nov-5. All right, I've listened to it a couple more times. Again, being no expert, and not really in the mood to go track by track, let me just say that each time I hear a song, I hear something different. I feel like there's a lot of "musical information" or "textual density" that I'm surprised can be produced by two instruments. Just like the best novels, upon rereading them, give you something new.

Updated 2015-Sep-11. Review from allaboutjazz.com.