Dhafer Youssef is a composer, singer and oud

Oud

The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...

 player. He developed an interest in jazz at an early age and clandestinely listened to it during his education at a Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

ic school. He later left Tunisia to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 or Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. He also works in avant garde and world music where he has been nominated for awards. He has released four albums of his own and also did notable work with Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

n trumpeter Paolo Fresu

Paolo Fresu

Paolo Fresu is a trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player, as well as an arranger of music, and music composer.-Career:Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda...

 and the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset

Eivind Aarset

Eivind Aarset is a Norwegian guitarist who has worked with artists such as Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper, Ketil Bjørnstad, Mike Mainieri, Arild Andersen, Abraham Laboriel, Dhafer Youssef and Django Bates and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer.His style is often associated with that of nu...

. He indicates an affinity for the music of India

Music of India

The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...

 and Nordic music

Nordic music

Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions in Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are generally taken to include Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The Nordic Council, an international organization, also includes the autonomous territories...

. He was a guest artist on the Norwegian jazz artist Bugge Wesseltoft

Bugge Wesseltoft

Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft is a Norwegian jazz musician, pianist, composer and producer. He has his own label named Jazzland Records. In the 1990s, Bugge has made a transition from Nordic jazz traditions exemplified by the ECM record label to a style sometimes referred to as "future jazz" or...

's album FiLM iNG. Youssef has also performed with Uri Caine

Uri Caine

Uri Caine is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.-Early years:The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, Caine began playing piano at seven and studied with French jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer at 12. He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania where he came...

, Jon Hassell

Jon Hassell

Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...

, Markus Stockhausen

Markus Stockhausen

Markus Pirol Stockhausen is a German trumpeter and composer.-Biography:Born in Cologne, he is the son of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. At age four he appeared as "child at play" in his father's theatre piece Originals. He received his first piano lessons at age six, and at age twelve he began to...

, Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê is a French jazz musician and composer of Vietnamese ancestry. His main instrument is guitar, and he also plays electric bass guitar and guitar synthesizer....

 and the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa

Omar Sosa

Omar Sosa is a composer, bandleader, and jazz pianist.-Biography:Sosa began studying marimba at age eight, then switched to piano at the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Havana, where he studied jazz. Sosa moved to Quito, Ecuador, in 1993, then San Francisco, California, in 1995...

. In 2001 he recorded Electric Sufi with the ex-Sugar Hill Gang

The Sugarhill Gang

The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....

 and Tackhead

Tackhead

Tackhead are an industrial hip-hop group that were most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, industrial music and electronica intersect...

 rhythm section of Will Calhoun

Will Calhoun

Will Calhoun is an American drummer, who graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music.-Career:...

 and Doug Wimbish

Doug Wimbish

Doug Wimbish is a bass player, primarily known for his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and his membership of the funk metal band Living Colour. He has played for a vast range of artists, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Madonna, George Clinton, Paula Cole, Bomb the Bass,...

.

Discography

• Blue Planet - Peace for Kabul (with Lenny MacDowell and Hakim Ludin) (1997)
• hot ROOM (also featuring Otto Lechner, Wolfgang Puschnig, Achim Tang) (1998)
• Malak (1999)
• Electric Sufi (2002)
• Digital Prophecy (2003)
• Odem (with Wolfgang Puschnig and Jatinder Thakur) (2005)
• Divine Shadows (2006)
• Glow (with Wolfgang Muthspiel
  Wolfgang Muthspiel
  Wolfgang Muthspiel is an Austrian guitarist and composer most associated with jazz and brother of the trombonist and pianist Christian Muthspiel....
  
  ) (2007)
• Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010)

External links

• Official site
• [ All Music Guide: Dhafer Youssef]
• BBC - Awards for World Music 2006 - Dhafer Youssef
• An All About Jazz article mentioning him