Walid Itayim

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My CD is out in Lebanon and is now available online at cdbaby.com. The title of the album is "Where I Wanna Be". It has 12 tracks on it which were recorded during the years 2007 and 2008. Most of the instruments were played by Munir Khauli and myself. There are several guest musicians as well. The title track "Where I Wanna Be" features Arthur Satyan on electric piano and hammond organ as well as Jeremy Chapman on Tenor Saxophone. The track "Can't Live This Way" features Ziad Rahbani on Fender Rhodes piano and Jeremy Chapman on Soprano Saxophone. The bass guitar on "Running Out Of Time" was played by Sami Shabshab. I owe the biggest debt to Munir Khauli without whom the recording of the CD would not have been possible. I would like to add that Munir played the monster guitar solo at the end of "Strangest Little Creature".



Walid Itayim & Friends playing the music from the CD "Where I Wanna Be" at the Beirut Jazz Festival on Wednesday October 7 at 10:45 pm. The bill will shared by the brilliant jazz saxophonist Toufic Farroukh and his band who will start at around 9 o'clock.



In Lebanon, the CD "Where I Wanna Be" is now officially available at CD Theque and all three branches of Virgin (Downtown, ABC and Citymall). I expect all of my friends to support and encourage me by buying a copy! :-)



Read a review of my CD at the USA based rock music site hardrockhaven.net:



http://hardrockhaven.net/online/2009/walid-itayim-where-i-want-to-be/



Walid Itayim born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Ever since he heard the Beatles at age 6 he decided that he wanted to play guitar in a rock band when he grew up. During his teens, he started writing his own songs. During his college days and after he got to play in several bands. He was a founding member of the Lebanese band FORCE with which he played with from 1983 until 1985. The band was built around the formidable rhythm section of Abboud Saadi on bass guitar and Emile Bustany on drums. Their repertoire was made upn of all original compositions. In those days in Lebanon, that was not very common as most bands' played cover songs. They recorded an album of all original compositions entitled "Forced" which was released in 1985 on cassette. The album was recorded at Bypass, Ziad Rahbani's recording studio. Ziad himself played keyboards on the album. In the years since then, Walid continued to write songs and play gigs in local clubs. He got to record on other people's albums such as Ziad Rahbani's CD Monodose with Salma on which he played guitar on 2 tracks.



In November 2006 he acquired a home recording studio and began to record his songs. Over the next 18 months, he recorded 12 songs which were released on CD under the title "Where I Wanna Be" in April 2009. Walid's influences as they were listed in the CD sleeve notes include: The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Wishbone Ash, Johnny Guitar Watson, Johnny Winter, Tommy Bolin, Deep Purple, David Coverdale, Paul Rodgers, Alvin Lee, Gary Moore and Steve Miller.



Taken at rehearsal with Ziad Rahbani's band March 2007



Live at the Beirut Jazz Festival October 7,2009



Live at the Beirut Jazz Festival October 7,2009



When Frank Zappa was on his deathbed in 1993 I composed and programmed the basic rhythm section of this tribute on a Yamaha Music Computer. The sounds I used came from a Proteus E-mu synthesizer. For some reason I never got around to finishing it. Later that computer crashed and I lost all the midi files that were on it. This week I found an old cassette of the recording and decided to finish it by adding stuff to it. I cut it up and looped a section to fit a guitar solo.Some drum rolls were added to the guitar and piano solo sections. And finally the part I am excited the most about adding to the original recording is the ending where the main melody of Frank's composition Eat That Question is quoted. I am very pleased with the way the final mix of this updated version turned out. I hope I have not done an injustice to Frank with this composition and with the guitar solo I played on it which was inspired directly by FZ's style of playing. I would appreciate comments from everyone who listens to it even if they are negative.



Live Recording with Rick Musallam at Bar Louie May 15 2009



Taken at Nova Club on May 18 2009 with Rick Musallam and Friends



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