Tarab, a Middle Eastern jazz rock fusion band, has been an emerging presence on the Vancouver music scene for the past two years. Hazem Matar, vocalist and electric oud player, will take the stage with his four band mates Oct. 24 at the Telus Studio Centre in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC. The performance is part of the upcoming Festival MOSAIC, an annual celebration of Vancouver’s diversity and multiculturalism organized by MOSAIC, a non-profit organization aimed at providing support for immigrants, refugees and new Canadians.
Middle Eastern jazz rock fusion group Tarab performing on stage | Photo courtesy of Hazem Matar
Traditional music made modern
A trained Middle Eastern musician with almost 20 years of experience, Matar describes his band as traditional Middle Eastern music with a modern twist.
“We move toward western taste by changing the rhythm, but that’s it – keeping the melody the same,” he says.
In Middle Eastern music, Matar explains, people place more emphasis on melody than rhythm. He says a good composer of Middle Eastern music will compose a lot of melody.
Matar explains that Tarab’s goal is to show the appeal of Middle Eastern music by introducing it in a modern way for people to enjoy. He also hopes to deliver the culture of Middle East to his audience. With the diversity of Vancouver, Matar says the band’s audience is great.
“They came because we had Middle Eastern music and we grow because they like it,” he says happily.
Although people of many ethnicities and nationalities enjoy the music of Tarab, Matar is keen to target young Middle Eastern men in Vancouver in particular. He explains that he wants to entertain people but, most importantly, to introduce them to Middle Eastern music.
Fate on the internet
Matar explains that the beginning of Tarab was actually thanks to a Craigslist coincidence. When he first came to Vancouver three years ago, he was seeking a community that shared his interest in music and performance. After he posted himself on Craigslist as a Middle Eastern musician, Matar received a message from a fellow musician that changed his music career in Vancouver.
“I started to play the Middle Eastern melody, and [the fellow musician] started to put [in] his own stuff; the rhythm and the bass, without knowing the song. It became something new,” Matar says.
Through this first experience of creating a fusion of Middle Eastern music, Tarab gradually came into existence.
Matar was able to build connections, meet people who shared his passion for music, and take a different approach to making Middle Eastern music accessible to an audience mostly attuned to western music.
Performing on the big stage
Hazem Matar, vocalist and electric oud player for Middle Eastern jazz rock fusion band, Tarab | Photo by Kumiko Aoki
Matar is looking forward to to Tarab’s upcoming performance at Festival MOSAIC.
“It will be fun. We have to do our best,” he says.
The 90 minute show will feature five other music groups from diverse backgrounds, ranging from a guitar and taiko drum duo to a group of Polynesian dancers. Sarah Catliff, managing consultant for MOSAIC, says the purpose of the night is to showcase multiculturalism and diversity and what people can do in coming together and celebrating harmony.
“You’d hope that people, almost feel like they’re travelling the globe while they’re sitting with these people and being entertained by them,” says Catliff.
Now in its fourth year, Festival MOSAIC has gained in popularity and is expected to welcome approximately 250 guests to this year’s edition.
Cal Koat, artistic director of Festival MOSAIC and a global music broadcaster and journalist, says that although the current turmoil and tension in the Middle East is a sad reality, the intense focus from the world naturally generates more interest in Middle Eastern cultural and artistic expressions, like music.
“A very positive by-product is that you are seeing a lot of interest in things Middle Eastern – as far as the arts go,” says Koat. “I would see it as a very good time for Middle Eastern cultural expression right now. And the future is bright.”
