Powerful women from present and past remain muses for Ibrahim Maalouf.
After releasing acclaimed albums dedicated to Arab songbirds — such as Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum (2015's Kalthoum) and Egyptian-born Italian-French pop star Dalida (2017’s Dalida by Ibrahim Maalouf) — the Lebanese-French trumpeter and composer conjures the drama and mystery of the Queen of Sheba.
The end result is a new collaborative album, named after the storied figure, with revered Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo.
Maalouf says the challenge of working on the ambitious project with someone described as a queen of the world music genre was an opportunity too good to pass up.
“It was Angelique who approached me years ago and said she wanted to work with me. That blew my mind because she is someone whose work I love so much,” he tells The National, at Morocco’s Jazzablanca Festival.
"We agreed that we would collaborate at some point but then a few days later, she messaged me saying that we should work on the story of Queen of Sheba, because she is a figure that's really at the meeting point between the Middle East and Arab culture and Africa.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see Jazzablanca Festival 2022 in Morocco
A story for the ages
The story of the Queen of Sheba has been told in various guises across Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions.
It is also told in the Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century epic poem forming the foundation story of Ethiopia.
All texts centre on her meeting with King Solomon and presenting him with riddles designed to test his wisdom.
Maalouf and Kidjo are among a number of artists who have attempted to capture the spirit of that exchange through music.
German-British composer George Frideric Handel wrote the 1748 oratorio Solomon, while the 1998 track Makeda (the name given to Sheba in the Kebra Negast) was performed by French RnB group Les Nubians.
Where those were singular pieces of music, Queen of Sheba could be the first album dedicated to the topic.
Each of the seven songs is inspired by a riddle posed to the king, with Kidjo providing the poetic lyrics in the west African Yoruba language and Maalouf in charge of the musical arrangements.
The project was originally conceived as a stage show and the success of a tour — with performances in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall and the Austrian festival Jazz a Vienne — convinced the duo to record the songs as an album.
"It is the format of the show that inspired me because seven songs are not too many, so that allowed me to write longer pieces," Kidjo says.
"If you hear it all together, it sounds like a symphony with seven parts.”
Featuring a classical orchestra, jazz players and African percussionists, Queen of Sheba is a melting pot of styles.
The opener Ahan (The Tongue) begins with an almost regal fluttering of horns before strident strings and percussion arrive with Kidjo, in the role of Sheba, questioning the king's patriarchal powers.
"Where does your strength derive from?” she says. “How much money do you have to pay?”
Watch Ibrahim Maalouf and Angelique Kidjo perform together in the video below
Omije (Tears) is a piano ballad in which Kidjo, supported by Maalouf's sorrowful trumpet, laments the destruction that pride has reeked on civilisations. "King Solomon, this day I am in the dark, I am like a little child of peace."
Maalouf says the intensity of her performance comes from her approach in the studio.
"She sent me the lyrics for the music and I sang her parts on the demos and sent it back to her," he says.
"She then recorded it exactly the same way but only better. Angelique wants things to be precise. She doesn't really go with the flow. Things have to be very much written already so I had to compose with her very specific voice in mind."
Voices to inspire
This way of working is something Maalouf is accustomed to.
Like Queen of Sheba, Maalouf's Kalthoum and Dalida by Ibrahim Maalouf albums also transcend mere tribute with their level of research and detail.
Maalouf describes his other muse, Umm Kulthum, as an "emblematic figure whose voice I have listened to the most since I was a child".
Kulthum's songs were some of the first pieces of music he was instructed to learn by his musician father, upon fleeing to Paris as a child during the Lebanese Civil War.
More inspiration comes from the women in his family, including his daughter, sisters, mother, aunt and grandmother.
Maalouf's grandmother, in particular, left him with the advice that has powered his eclectic career.
"She lived until she was 19 and before she died, I asked her if she thought she was an intelligent woman during her life and her response is something I will never forget. She looked at me and said 'I just adapt’.
"My grandmother is a woman who lived through three wars, lost a child and was a strong woman who adapted to everything around her.
“That's the strength of women in our society and I will continue to communicate this love and appreciation I have for them through my projects."
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Schedule (All times UAE)
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Number of Laps: 53
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Dos
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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