Street of Minarets

Described as a ‘gesture of gratitude and admiration’ from the 50-something Dhafer Youssef of today to his teenage self, this album sees the Tunisian composer, vocalist and oud player teaming up with his lifelong idols, including genre-crossing luminaries such as Herbie Hancock and Marcus Miller.

Forget ‘Ondes of Chakras’ — the first single to be released from the album — which sounds reductive, like any of a hundred ‘Arabic Chill Out’ compilations. Go straight to the richly layered, atmospheric beauty of ‘Spinning Hermit’ or the post-bop infused brilliance of ‘Herbie's Dance’, named for the venerable living god of jazz who plays piano here. On the title-track, the mesmerising sound of the adhan (Youssef's own grandfather was a muezzin) calling the faithful to prayer from the mosque's minarets — hence the album's name — contrasts with the blistering guitar riffs that follow. Liner notes explain that ‘Sudra Funk’ was born out of a composition, originally entitled ‘Byzance’, that Youssef wrote 30 years ago in homage to another one of his idols, Dave Holland. Here, for the first time, Youssef gets to play that very song with him and you can almost sense his joy. They say you should never meet your idols. In this case they’re wrong.