Boom.Diwan

🌊 It’s show season! 🌊
Please join us for a wonderful concert featuring and .alotaiba at the beautiful in Dubai.

February 7th, show starts at 7pm

Link for tickets in highlights!

.q8 .almozeall

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1XyqN9eUSQ/

Boom.Diwan with guests Nduduzo Makhathini, Liany Mateo, and Elé Howell Kuwaiti maritime and desert traditions meet the improvisational energy of jazz in this cross-continental presentation of new music.Boom.Diwan presents new co...

Between recordings and the concert last week, we managed to sneak in a few pictures with , who captured us perfectly 🤍🌊

Sacred time with beautiful people culminating in a double-album and a concert ritual. So much Spirit, Heart, Reverence, and Joy.

Thank you my dear music family for your faith in my vision.

Thanks to The Division of Arts and Humanities, and The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi for creating the space, supporting my work, and making all this beauty possible.
Thanks to The National for sharing our story!

🌊🤍🌊🤍🌊🤍🌊🤍🌊

https://www.thenationalnews.com/video/q4HveAGv/the-band-reviving-kuwaiti-pearl-diving-music-through-jazz/

The band reviving Kuwaiti pearl-diving music through jazz | The National In this episode of Culture Bites, Enas Refaei is joined by UAE-based musician Ghazi Al Mulaifi to talk about the traditions of Kuwaiti pearl-diving music that inspired his band, Boom.Diwan. Ghazi tells Enas about his own family history of pearl diving and the intrigue it sparked in him. The rich cul...

https://publicprograms.nyuad.nyu.edu/en/the-arts-center/events/2026/january/boom-diwan-with-nduduzo-makhathini-liany-mateo-and-ele-howell.html

Boom.Diwan with Nduduzo Makhathini, Liany Mateo, and Elé Howell Boom.Diwan presents new compositions weaving together Kuwaiti maritime and desert traditions with the improvisational energy of jazz, drawn from their forthcoming album, which is being recorded the week of the concert. Joining the ensemble are distinguished collaborators: South African pianist and B...

Thank you for this great honor and for the beautiful write up 🌊🤍🌊. We’re in great company 🙏

In his teenage years, jazz guitarist and ethnomusicologist Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi listened to stories from his grandfather, one of Kuwait’s last master pearl divers before the nation’s shift to oil led to the practice being outlawed, as head of ensemble Boom.Diwan and in collaboration with Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra director Arturo O’Farrill on new album Live in the Khaleej!, he pays tribute to divers and their daily practices by intertwining pearl-diving song styles, central African dance sounds, and broadly American jazz and blues.

In many ways, it’s an emulation of Kuwaiti cosmopolitanism as the group’s repertoire moves from ten minutes of sparse melancholy on “Ana Mashoof” to rhumba-powered “Muneera”, then to swirling and wailing “Blue” and freeform “Compay Doug” before ending with mournful “Utviklingssang”. This is rich jazz made by a group thoughtful about their roots, music, and scholarship, more powerful for each other. Even more than that, Live in the Khaleej! is communication between musicians, between cultures, between times, and between performers and audiences, beautifully done.

For your GRAMMY© Consideration!

Ghazi & Boom.Diwan x Arturo O’Farrill

Album: Live in the Khaleej!

Categories:

Best Alternative Jazz Album
Best Jazz Performance
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical - Estelle Galloway
Best Album Notes - Ashley Kahn

Recorded live in The Black Box at The Arts Center at NYUAD

Dig it!