SILWAN (Album)
Wanees Zarour & East Loop (Levantine Music)
For Your Consideration — GRAMMY® Award
BEST ALTENATIVE JAZZ ALBUM
Silwan brings Palestinian and Arabic maqam traditions into conversation with contemporary jazz, bringing together the improvisational and composition languages of these traditions into one cohesive framework.
Built around seven original compositions by Wanees Zarour, the critically acclaimed album explores themes of memory, place, and belonging through the sound of a contemporary jazz octet, featuring the oud and buzuq, in addition to horns, and an elaborate rhythm section.
TRACKS FOR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Festival
For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
Best Jazz Performance
Or Listen:
Silwan
For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
Best Instrumental Composition
Or Listen:
Fig Tree
For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella
Or Listen:
Lifta
For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
Best Global Music Performance
Or Listen:
THE MUSIC
Silwan draws on maqam—the modal system at the heart of Arabic music—while creating space for jazz improvisation and the individual voices of the ensemble.
Oud and buzuq sit alongside clarinet, saxophone, trombone, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and Arabic percussion in music that moves between tightly structured composition and open improvisation.
“Wanees Zarour pays homage to his Palestinian heritage on Silwan, melding jazz, world beat and a symphonic conception in seven stirring compositions.”
— Carlo Wolff, DownBeat
“Zarour’s colorful and eastern-centered compositions and arrangements… lend the session its ambience and charm.”
— Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
“His work sits comfortably in the lineage of world-jazz pioneers.”
— Thierry De Clemensat, Paris-Move
“An enlightening and cultured affair, Zarour’s vision and the East Loop ensemble touch on Palestinian heritage, Arabic traditions and Chicago jazz and blues with incredible chemistry.”
— Tom Haugen, Take Effect
“Silwan is an avant-garde, genre-defying masterpiece, highly recommended especially for connoisseurs.”
— Midwest Book Review
WATCH
“Festival” – track from the album Silwan
“Silwan” – title track from the album Silwan
PERSONNEL
Wanees Zarour — compositions, arrangements, oud, buzuq, percussion
Bryan Pardo — alto saxophone, clarinet
Catie Hickey — trombone
Samuel Mösching — guitar
Andrew Lawrence — piano, keyboards, synthesizers
Vinny Kabat — bass
Nick Kabat — drums
Tareq Rantisi — percussion
Jason Schmidt — recording and mixing engineer
Oscar Zambrano — mastering engineer
Recorded at RaxTrax Studio in Chicago, Illinois.
Cover art by Barbara Kapp, Design by Daliah Zarour
SELECTED PRESS AND INTERVIEWS
Paris-Move
Silwan — review by Thierry De Clemensat
All About Jazz
Silwan — review by Jack Bowers
Afikra
Wanees Zarour — interview
DownBeat – March 2026 P.39
Silwan — review by Carlo Wolff