Regardless of the fact that he has never recorded in a proper studio album in his life, Abdel Karim Chaar is a living legend of Lebanese music. Raised by a Muslim father and Christian mother, he sang as muezzin in a mosque and in a Christian choir during his childhood. Having mastered classical, Sufi and maqamat styles, he’s held a residency at a cabaret in Beirut for many years and regularly appears on radio and TV programs. His truly unique style of singing, which requires as much musical prowess as physical endurance to perform, aims at the transformative exchange of energies between the musicians and their audience. Based on the tarab repertoire of classical Arabic music, his concerts can turn into hour-long, deeply moving improvisations on only a few traditional compositions. In this bilingual episode of Headphone Highlights, Chaar and his daughter Ranine, a highly regarded singer and opera performer in her own right, introduce us to the evocative, trance-like effects of tarab.
