Wanees Zarour: Silwan

There are times when not knowing what to expect can be helpful. Wanees Zarour, a Palestinian-American artist who now calls Chicago home, plays the buzuq and oud, stringed instruments from the Middle East, and couples them on Silwan with his skills as a composer to produce melodic and colorful images of his homeland interspersed with contemporary jazz. As Zarour observes on the inner jacket, "This album is about places, built with stones older than the stories written to erase them."

Those places are definitely east of the Windy City, where Zarour directs the 80-member Middle East Music Ensemble at the University of Chicago, co-directs the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra and leads the eight-member East Loop ensemble, which performs here. Silwan consists of seven of Zarour's compositions and arrangements, each of which induces an unmistakable Middle Eastern aroma. While there is improvisation, it unfolds so naturally from Zarour's melodic and harmonic precepts as to be almost an afterthought. Even though jazz is an underlying component, it is overshadowed for the most part by Zarour's focus on Middle Eastern melody, harmony and rhythm.

Zarour uses maqam, an Arabic system of melodic modes that translates to "place, location or position," whereon to trace his harmonic blueprint. His buzuq and oud point the way on most numbers, while Bryan Pardo's clarinet, Samuel Mösching's guitar and Tareq Rantisi's percussion accentuate the Middle Eastern vibe. Pianist Andrew Lawrence, bassist Vinny Kabat, trombonist Catie Hickey and drummer Nick Kabat have their special roles to play, and do so quite well. In the end, however, it is Zarour's colorful and eastern-centered compositions and arrangements that lend the session its ambience and charm.

Even though it is not jazz as most westerners know it, Silwan is a clear reminder that the Middle East, much like areas in every corner of the globe, has a rich musical heritage of its own, one that Zarour deftly marries with music that may land more gently on western ears to produce an album that is handsome and charming in its own way. It is also, one should note, quite well-played by Zarour's talented East Loop ensemble.