Healing Rituals

Syrian-French flautist Naïssam Jalal has been somewhat overlooked as a composer and bandleader, but with this album – her ninth! – hopefully that will change. Healing Rituals is Jalal's paean to the therapeutic and healing abilities of music, with each of its eight pieces a ‘ritual’ dedicated to a power of nature: wind, sun, hills, rivers, ground, forests, moon and mist. It's a gem.

Flutes and voice lead a quartet with cello, double bass and drum kit, a classy chamber ensemble that allows for beautiful harmonies while avoiding dense chords. The compositions occupy the worlds of jazz and classical without sitting fully in either, and Jalal uses that inbetweenness to introduce many other soundworlds. She is clearly a passionate scholar of many flute traditions, and their influence seeps through the whole album as she channels the Fula tambin, Hindustani bansuri, Ethiopian washint and Irish low-whistle as well as the European classical concert flute and the Arabic ney of her own formal education. It's all given a thoughtful, sensitive and playful treatment where energy flows freely without ever boiling over.

This is music that defies categories, instead breathing free like the nature of its inspiration – Naïssam Jalal's skills as a musician and composer are hard to ignore.