Jean-pierre Smadj

Jean-Pierre Smadja (Smadj)

Tunisian born, Parisian musician ,Jean-Pierre Smadja (Smadj) grew up listening to Oriental, Brazilian, funk, soul, and folk music. Entering a jazz school at age 15 due to his intense interest in the guitar, Smadjs musical development came to be characterized by transforming traditional jazz styles into eclectic sounds. This interest in the mechanics of making music led Smadj to pursue a degree in sound engineering, which led to a fruitful career as a recording & sound engineer for famous classical and folk musicians. Releasing his first album in 1994, it wasnt until 2000 that Smadj became recognized on an international scale for his signature blending of acoustic and electronic sounds on Equilibriste, which would ascend on the European World Music Charts to the number 4 position. In 2002, Smadj joined fellow ud magician, French musician Mehdi Haddab, for a special project that would transport the oud to the 21st century in DuOuD. Supporting their triumph of an album with a 2 year world tour, the album also received 2nd place in the Best Album category at the prestigious BBC World Music Awards. In 2003, Smadj joined master percussionist Burhan ��al for Burhan ��al & The Trakya All Stars featuring Smadj and in 2005 he stepped behind the scenes to serve as artistic director for Burhan ��als New Dream.He recorded his last album S.O.S released in december in turkey with 2 turkish virtuosos Savas Zurnaci and Orhan Osman. Finally also the album of DuOuD with abdulatif Yagoub recorded in Yemen was released after a tremendous work and too much problems with Label Bleu who didn't support really this production, but we are proud of this album which represents a true meeting of culture and a source of many changes in our life.All the travelling in Yemen to work with these extraordianry musicians will stay for ever in our minds.The new album of Trakya all stars(Onyamya Geldik) proved the interest of Smadj for Gypsies music and confirmed his habilities to work with turkish traditional music bringing sounds of west

After all the DuOuds decided to do a new album concentrating on their new oud sounds and new electronic universe(Ping Kong), recently released(02/2009), the album is receiving the aprobation of the critics and the duet is always on the road

Finally Smadj realized his dream of recording his last album(Selin) with Erik Truffaz and Talvin Singh, the most acoustic and melodic album of Smadj

Smadj met also Cem Yildiz and recorded the soundtrack of the film Muro with him at the end of 2008 and realized the idea to built a band (H�) focused on Alevi traditional music revisited, they just finished the album



Smadj continues making music in the city where east meets west, Istanbul.



== Discography ==

* Smadj (SelinMVS/Bassofone/06/2009 )

*DuOuD(Ping kong/world village/02/2009)

* Burhan ��al & The Trakya All Stars featuring Smadj(Onyamya Geldik-Doublemoon 2006)

* DuOud & Abdulatif Yagoub - "Sakat" (Label Bleu 2006)

* Smadj presents SOS (Doublemoon 2005)

*Burhan �cal(New dream/2004)

* Take It And Drive (Most Records 2004)

* Burhan ��al & The Trakya All Stars featuring Smadj - Krklareli Il Snr (Doublemoon 2003)

* Laurent de Wilde-Stories-( Warner jazz 2003 )

* DuOuD Wild Serenade (Label Bleu 2002)

* New deal (Electric M.E.L.T 2000)

* Artkonik- Vendetta society- (Comet 2000)

* Equilibriste (M.E.L.T. 2000, 1999)



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