Tarek Yamani Trio Swings Into City College Center For The Arts This November

The hypnotic fusion of American jazz and Arabic tarab music arrives in Harlem as the Tarek Yamani Trio presents "Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic" on Friday, November 16, at Aaron Davis Hall. Presented by City College Center for the Arts (CCCA), the 7:30 p.m. concert will offer music lovers a wonderful mix of re-arranged late 19th century songs from the Arabic repertoire, jazz standards and original compositions based on Levantine rhythms by trio leader Tarek Yamani.

A self-taught, award-winning jazz pianist, Yamani has earned praise from music critics around the globe. Rob Garratt of Time Out hailed his work as "shimmering spidery piano godliness"; and his recent albums, including 2014's Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic and his most recent work, Peninsular (2017), are critically acclaimed. Originally from Lebanon, Yamani now calls Harlem home and his unique style of music, "Afro-Tarab," an enthralling harmony of American jazz and the classical Arabic music known as tarab, is a reflection of both his worlds.

"Tarek Yamani is an amazing performer and his interpretation of American jazz through his own native culture is something that most people don't get to hear often. The concert will be a truly superb event," said Gregory Shanck, managing director of CCCA.

A composer, educator and film scorer, Yamani has received many honors including winning the esteemed Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition and being named an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. As a performer he has shared the stage with such music greats as Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Regina Carter and Zakir Hussain.

The upcoming concert by the Tarek Yamani Trio will feature Yamani on piano, Sam Minaie on acoustic bass and John Davis on drums. Tickets are on sale now for $25 and can be purchased by visiting www.citycollegecenterforthearts.org or in person at the Aaron Davis Hall box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. Aaron Davis Hall is located on the campus of the City College of New York at West 135th Street and Convent Avenue (129 Convent Avenue).

For more details on this concert and other performances at Aaron Davis Hall, visit the CCCA website or call the box office at (212) 650-6900.

For more information on Tarek Yamani follow him on Twitter at @tarek_yamani or visit www.tarekyamani.com. City College Center for the Arts can be followed on Twitter at @ccnyarts.

Tarek Yamani is a New York-based pianist who was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Yamani taught himself jazz at the age of 19 and has for years been dedicated to exploring relationships between African-American jazz and classical Arabic music, relations which are most evident in his album Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic and his most recent release, Peninsular, which fuses jazz with quarter-tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula.

A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Huygens Scholarship, the Prins Bernhard Culture Fund and the Abu Dhabi Festival Commission, Yamani has participated in two official International Jazz Day events and performed in venues such as the Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler Gallery, National Sawdust, the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin) and the MuCEM (Marseille).

Yamani is also an educator, a writer and a film score composer for films that have screened in more than 70 festivals around the world and have aired on the AMC network, BBC and Sundance TV.

The City College Center for the Arts hosts an ambitious, year-round calendar of student and professional performances. The mission of the City College Center for the Arts is to provide a creative arts center and focal point for the City College of New York, building a sense of community within the College, elevating the profile of Aaron Davis Hall in the greater New York area, and connecting the College to the surrounding community through the arts.

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