Kali City

Karim Baggili is a Belgian-born composer, guitarist and oud (Arab lute) player of Jordanian/Yugoslavian heritage, which means that he has a lot of choice when looking for inspiration. For his fourth CD he is joined by the estimable Trio Joubran for the first five tracks, and his own band for the remainder; giving the album an interesting split personality. It would be hard to imagine Trio Joubran recording anything that is less than excellent and Baggili's light, atmospheric compositions are certainly well-served by their sumptuous sound: the most successful piece on the album is ‘Big Fish’, the only one that features all three brothers playing together. It's a brave oud player who sets his own performance alongside Trio Joubran but Baggili acquits himself admirably here. Once again, his compositions are fairly unchallenging affairs, but with a pleasing pan-Arab feel: if you could only take one CD on a Mediterranean holiday, the combination of Baggili's flamenco-tinged guitar and oud playing should cover most bases.