Ahmed Mukhtar and Lusardi Monteverde – Al-hambra (ARC Music, 2025)
Flamenco guitar and the Arabic lute known as the oud go together like, well, feel free to insert the name of your favorite combination here. With Argentine/Italian Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde handling the former and Iraqi Ahmed Mukhtar on the latter, the album Al-hambra is an exquisite showcasing of both instruments and their players.
Most of the compositions are Mukhtar’s, and the Moorish roots not always immediately detectable in flamenco are brought to the forefront. But touches of Latin America are heard as well, plus further musical reach is heard in the use of Arabic maqams, and the fact that the closing track (“The Young Prince and the Young Princess”) is Monteverde’s rearrangement of a piece by Russian classical composer Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov.
Mukhtar and Monteverde intertwine their axes with both finesse and fire, and the addition of Demi Garcia Sabat on percussion throughout insures extra rhythmic zest. Never overindulgent or unnecessarily flashy, the ten pieces that comprise this gem of a CD are a most impressive lot.
Buy Al-hambra.
Author: Tom Orr
Tom Orr is a California-based writer whose talent and mental stability are of an equally questionable nature. His hobbies include ignoring trends, striking dramatic poses in front of his ever-tolerant wife and watching helplessly as his kids surpass him in all desirable traits.