Maqam
Origin
Ultimately from .
Full definition of maqam
Noun
- (music) A modal structure characterizing the art of music of countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
- January 14, 2008, Ben Ratliff, Jazz Showcase Fever Propels a Mini Marathon, Elsewhere in the evening the young Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, who has studied both jazz and traditional Arabic maqam patterns and combines them in modal pieces for improvisers, demonstrated with his sextet (including an oud and a santoor, the Persian hammered dulcimer) how hungry jazz still is for sources older than itself.
- May 1, 2008, Erica Goode, A Fabled Iraqi Instrument Thrives in Exile, At 18, late for a professional musician, he took up the oud, studying the mysteries of the Iraqi maqam, the complex system of tonal sequences and improvisation passed from master to student.
- April 2, 2009, Ashante Infantry, Baghdad jazz, But he hesitated when approached to do a project that combined maqam with jazz, even though that had been his pre-quest intention.