Improvisation as an art of living
The trumpeter, composer and teacher Ibrahim Maalouf has published a book that has the feel of an autobiography.
After a fine duo album to mark her 40th birthday and a recent CD entitled First Noel filled with melodies to put under the Christmas tree, the hyperactive trumpeter, composer and teacher Ibrahim Maalouf publishes a reflection on improvisation as an art of living. Divided into four chapters on the virtues of improvisation, which have enabled the author to liberate himself, pass on his knowledge, heal himself and live better with others, the book is in large part an autobiography. Born into a Lebanese family who had emigrated to France, Ibrahim was taught all the secrets of the instrument by his father, Nassim Maalouf, a top-flight trumpeter, and left to improvise on the piano of his mother, a music teacher. From this double initiation, he would become a highly gifted melodist, drawing on his broad knowledge of the Western and Eastern repertoires, but also a voluble improviser.
Whether following the example set by his parents to integrate into French society, or by himself along an artistic path that began at a very early age, Maalouf believes that improvisation is as much a way of coping with life's difficulties as it is of indulging in artistic creation. It fills the fear of emptiness, makes you admit mistakes, makes you tolerant, and above all, it's not just about jam sessions. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book: for the author, improvisation is above all about breaking musical codes, mixing styles, trying things out, for better or worse. And so much the worse if, in a delightful anecdote recounting a long argument, little Ibrahim doesn't end up being hailed by the great Wynton Marsalis as a true jazzman. Because on the stage they shared just after this difficult dialogue, he improvised a gift for Wynton in the shape of... a four-piston trumpet, an instrument invented by his father to play the quarter tones of Oriental music.
Ibrahim Maalouf: Petite philosophie de l'improvisation, 247 p., € 18.00, Éditions des Équateurs - Mister Ibé, Paris 2021, ISBN 978-2-3828-43196-9
