Building bridges with music: Amman Jazz Festival begins on a high note

AMMAN — Few seats remain empty in the theatre of the OES Sports & Culture Building of the Orthodox Educational Society in Amman on Tuesday evening. Conversations in Arabic, French, Spanish, English, even Italian can be heard. On stage, instruments are waiting to be played from local and international artists.

The 11th edition of the Amman Jazz Festival (AJF) is all about drawing cultures closer together with the beauty of music, according to the organisers. The festival ends on Thursday.

Lama Hazboun, founder and director of AJF, said: “From the start, we aspired to gather local and international musicians, and to create opportunities for sustainable cultural exchanges within the creative economy.”

Then the lights in the theatre dimmed and the talks fell silent. Halaqat, a European-Arabic Music Residency consisting of five musicians, entered the stage. They just met for the first time a few days ago, as Sarra Douik, singer and oudist, would later tell. 

“We haven’t known each other before. You are confronted with different styles of music. It was challenging,” Douik, from Tunisia and currently studying vocals in the Italian city Vicenza, said. “We had to adapt to each other, musically and humanly.”

Listening to Halaqat on stage, the audience could feel the harmony of the rendition, with each musician aware when it was time to shine and when the moment came to step back. After a beautifully humble and captivating performance, the people in the theatre stood up, clapping loudly for Douik, Victoria Kirilova (double bass), Ahmad Sellawy (clarinet), Bashar Khries (drums), and Nareg Abajian (keyboard, piano) and special guest Gesim Elbdoul, who played some songs with the ensemble.

Even though concerts of the AJF have already taken place in Petra last Sunday and Monday, Halaqat were the first act of the main programme. 

The second group entering the stage in Amman on this opening was MaDaBa Trio. The Syrian oudist and singer Nawras Altaky, Tony Roe (piano and electronics) and Sjahin During (Afro Anatolian percussion) teamed up with a special guest, Quasai Sroor from Jordan. Their vibrant and yet sometimes deeply melancholic performance was a worthy finale of the first main evening of the AJF.

“I liked it,” visitor Mahmood Talal said after sitting down, having been part of another standing ovation of the audience. “I’ll definitely come again.”