For the past decade, Palestinian singer, musician and broadcaster Reem Kelani has been working with some of the best British Jazz musicians, introducing them to and training them in Arabic music. She has toured extensively with her band, in the UK and internationally.
Reem has also brought musicians together, extending her UK based line-up on international tours to include musicians from Syria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Portugal.
Reem’s profile in the Arab and non Arab world continues to grow, all the more to her credit as an unsigned artist who has preserved her independence, musically, spiritually and politically.
Following her acclaimed British Council tour in Syria in 2007, Reem's “Anglo-Syrian” band performed at Jableh Festival, Lattakia in July 2009, in south-east Turkey in October 2009, at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November 2010, and at World Music Shanghai in May 2011.
Joint projects- Exceptional Turkish collective Kardes, Türküler
- Turkish Roma clarinet virtuoso Selim Sesler
- “From Palestine to Portugal” with Portuguese Fado singer Liana. A first of its kind, the project combined the poetry of Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish and Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago
- Duo Jazz project with the exceptional Jazz pianist Bruno Heinen
Special commissionsReem’s acclaimed composition “Paradise in Strangers” with the Beating Wing Orchestra, an ensemble of locally based refugee musicians was commissioned by Manchester International Festival in 2007.
“If anyone can do it, that person is Reem Kelani. She has a genius for finding the universal in the particular. Her album, Sprinting Gazelle, introduced jazz musicians to Middle Eastern modes and was pure and profound. The 'f' word ('fusion') doesn't even apply.” Mike Butler, The Metro
Nominations- BBC Alba’s A’Gharaids series, featuring a special collaboration by Reem Kelani and Gaelic singer Catriona Watt, nominated for the Scottish Traditional Music Awards 2009
- Arab-British Culture and Society Award Nomination 2008 – a special commendation for Reem’s “notable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the life, society and culture of the Arab people”
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Fund Nomination, 2007
- Glastonbury Unsigned Bands finalist 2005
Debut albumTitle: “Sprinting Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora”
Label: Fuse Records
Best of 2006: Financial Times, Time Out & New Internationalist
More than 50 first class reviews from across the world.
“A lovely stillness pervades this album, whose illuminating English-Arabic liner notes are a work of art in themselves.” Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine
Forthcoming album
Reem is currently working on her next album, a tribute to the great Egyptian composer Sayyid Darwish (1892 – 1923), which she hopes to release in 2012.
She has been working on this project for the past eight years, conducting field trips to Egypt, Syria and Turkey as part of her research. Some of the new songs already form part of Reem’s live repertoire.
Press quotes
“I thought, there she is, Reem Kelani, pouring every milligram of her being into this performance, her audience rapt, transported before her, and there's this precious, non-violent force transmuting a mouthful of air into articulate energy, an energy that evokes sympathetic vibrations through whole communities, giving hope and strength, lifting human spirits from out of their dark times.” Brian Robinson, Musicweaver
“Palestinian singer Reem Kelani was a new name in my world, but the woman was so endearing I'll never forget her.” Gary Bannister, Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle
“What I found here was more than just mere singing. I saw the amazing presence of this singer, her towering stance and appearance on stage, her interaction with the band and with the audience.” Rashed Issa, as-Safir, Syria & Lebanon
“When she told me earlier that she did not see any difference between jazz and Arabic music, it sounded a stretch; here, for a moment, the two spin together so fast they sound like one.” David Honigmann, Financial Times
Background
Born in Manchester, England, and brought up in Kuwait, Reem qualified as a biologist in 1986 at Kuwait University. Upon her graduation and before switching to a full-time career in music, she worked for two years as an assistant marine researcher for Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) and two years in research management for the Vice Rector of Research at Kuwait University. Reem is also a literary translator: she assisted her father Dr. Yousef Kelani in the English-Arabic translation of Manfred Ullman’s seminal book ‘Islamic Medicine’ in 1980 and she currently works with the likes of literary editor and historian Dr. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. The sleeve notes of Reem’s debut CD are another example of her translation work.
قطعن النصراويات
02 'Adthab el-Jammaal Qalbi
عذب الجمال قلبي
03 Tahlileh Jaliliyyeh
تهليلة جليلية
04 Habl el-Ghiwa
حبل الغوى
(5). Mawwaal
موال
06 Khawaatir wa-Asdaa'
خواطر و أصداء
07 Ya Reem al-Ghuzlaan
اه يا ريم الغزلان
08 Jaffa!
يافا
09 Qasidat al-'Awdah
قصيدة العودة
10 Il-Hamdillah
الحمد لله
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