VoxCarnyx

As the Aga Khan Master Musicians take up residence at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, saxophonist Basel Rajoub talks to Keith Bruce.

The Edinburgh International Festival’s busiest venue is The Hub, where above the ground floor box office is a picturesque room that has hosted the widest variety of musical experiences. It is currently hosting the Aga Khan Music Programme – very much the public face of the Aga Khan Development Network – and on Friday that season culminates in a concert by the Aga Khan Master Musicians.

It is a supergroup of what are inadequately described as “world musicians”, including pipa player Wu Man, virtuoso percussionist Abbos Kosimov, Yurdal Tokcan on oud, Feras Charestan on kanoun and saxophonist Basel Rajoub, augmented for these concerts by French mavericks Vincent Pierani on accordion and Vincent Segal in cello, both of whom then have a late night gig with Malian kora star Ballake Sissoko.

Basel Rajoub would certainly dispute any claim to personifying the Master Musicians. Each one of them is a virtuoso who brings compositions to the table that are shaped by the ensemble, with plenty of room for improvisation. Nonetheless, his story, as a displaced Syrian now resident in Geneva where the project has its home, seems central to their ethos.

Rajoub has been a member of the Master Musicians since the resident ensemble was created in 2009. His route to playing the saxophone, and the fact that he plays it in a way outside both classical and jazz traditions, is a singular story.

“I studied Western classical music in Damascus Conservatory, but I studied trumpet until I had to give it up when I took a reaction to the mouthpiece in my lips at the age of 24,” he explains. “I switched to saxophone and I favour soprano because it is near to the range of the trumpet.

“Saxophone is a quite unique instrument, connected with jazz and classical in the West but more associated with traditional music in the Middle East, used at weddings and funerals and street parties. I love the sound of it.”

It is that heritage of Middle-Eastern classical music that Rajoub brings to the Master Musicians.

“I carry the Syrian classical tradition with me, but not like the oud, which is an instrument integral to that tradition, so there is an effort in making it work. I don’t want to be a Western classical musician or a jazz musician, I want to use my knowledge of scales and microtones, and the saxophone has some limitations for expressing that.”

The point in the performances of the Master Musicians is that they find a common language although coming from completely different backgrounds.

“We change a lot, and we have a lot of African music in our performances which is a different energy. But at the same time there are two Syrians in the band, me and the kanoun player, so our influence is always there. The project is always changing, always unique and different.”

There is no bitterness in his voice when he says that his father told him not to try to return to his war-torn homeland over a decade ago.

“I left Syria before the war in 2008. I didn’t want to go into the army, and I was last there to play in the opera house in 2011 just before the war. I came from Aleppo which was one of the centres of Syrian classical music, and even though the old city – and buildings 1500 years old – have been destroyed completely, the music will still be there. There is always hope in that.”

In some concerts, Rajoub says, the Master Musicians have played with a classical Syrian singer as part of the maintenance of that tradition, but mostly the music is new and specially written. The current concerts began with a residency in Lisbon where they all had time to compose.

The rest of the time Rajoub teaches in Geneva and his fellow musicians come to give masterclasses there. On their travels, the players often visit music schools and give community performances, as they will be doing in Edinburgh.

Personally, the saxophonist says he has found a situation of musical fulfilment.

“I have the chance to meet and play with great musicians who were previously unknown to me. This feels like a life project.”

The Aga Khan Master Musicians are at The Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh on Friday August 22 at 7pm.