Rami Gabriel Duo

 Lebanese-Egyptian guitarist and oud player Rami Gabriel, who grew up in Toronto, has gained attention in Chicago for his invaluable contributions to the adventurous Jazz Manouche combo led by guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli, Swing Gitan, which performs elsewhere at this year’s World Music Festival Chicago. But the highly skilled musician—who is also an author, a psychology scholar teaching at Columbia College and a recent fellow at the prestigious Center for Black Music Research—has a wide range of musical interests, traversing an array of global styles and approaches. He helps lay down reggae and soul grooves alongside Scott Ligon, Alex Hall and Casey McDonough—all of Flat Five fame—in the quartet RACS, while his 2015 album Oud Blues & New Traditions explored a marriage between Arabic music and Chicago blues. He’s followed up his serious training in Arabic music—with studies in Cairo and Istanbul—with his own spin on the tradition.

• http://www.ramigabriel.wordpress.com