# Ibrahim Maalouf steps out of his comfort zone with ‘Capacity to Love’: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/01/22/ibrahim-maalouf-steps-out-of-his-comfort-zone-with-capacity-to-love-video-photos/
- Published: 2023-01-22T00:04:05+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Every time he works on a new album, trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf asks himself:
Am I doing something new or am I repeating myself? “Am I just releasing album to
release an album because this is how I make a living? … ” he asks. “My challenge
is every time to try to even surprise myself.”**

Following the release of his Grammy-nominated album with Angelique Kidjo, the French-
Lebanese trumpet player is back with a new body of work titled Capacity to Love,
featuring some of the industry’s best in pop and hip-hop music.

The album features a wide array of vocalists from across the pop music spectrum —
from Cimafunk and Tank and the Bangas to hip-hop artists Erick the Architect and
De La Soul.

“I love hip-hop culture, I love all American culture,” Maalouf says. “You cannot
be European, for example, or even a Lebanese person, without having a big part of
your culture that is American. Because you watch TV, you watch movies, you listen
to pop music. So all this is American influence, no one can deny that.”

Maalouf invited some little-known artists and a few bigger names to record on the
album. The title Capacity to Love came from singer Gregory Porter after the two 
musicians had a long conversation about the ideas and philosophy behind the album.
Maalouf says this project is the first outside his comfort zone.

**Bringing a trumpet competition back to life**

Maalouf credits much of his career to his father’s mentor, Maurice André, who inspired
generations of trumpeters. When an international trumpet competition in André’s 
honor went on a 16-year hiatus, Maalouf felt a responsibility to revive it in Paris
to honor both men.

![](https://i0.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/12/22/im2_custom-5c82869f7d0088b1b94059e18c033d1724ec6bf3-
s1100-c50.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1)

With his 15th album, _Capacity to Love_, Maalouf hopes to promote hope and tolerance.
He’s shown above during the Nice Jazz Festival in southeastern France in July 2019.

“Ten years after the loss of Maurice André, we need to bring it back,” he says. 
Because it’s the name of Maurice André, it’s what he brought to me, to my father
and to our family, and I cannot forget him.”

French trumpeter Clémente Saunier says André’s influence helped Maalouf understand
the power of his instrument, blending his father’s legacy of Arab music into other
sounds. “Adding this to a classical and jazz and world music style,” he says. “I
think this image of finally, ‘everything is possible if I play the trumpet’, it’s
not just playing in the last seats of the band.”

**Finding common ground**

The hard work has paid off. Maalouf has been nominated for a 2023 Grammy for his
_Queen of Sheba _album with Angelique Kidjo. It’s a seven-part suite connecting 
Africa to the Middle East. Kidjo wrote songs in the Yoruba language, inspired by
riddles the Queen of Sheba posed to King Solomon. Maalouf composed and arranged 
the music. Kidjo says she chose riddles that are relevant in the world today, such
as _Ahan_ about the power of the word.

**Ibrahim Maalouf Official YouTube**

“We need to talk to one another and find common ground,” Kidjo says. “Because it’s
our fate, we are made to live together, and if we lose the ability to talk to one
another then we start killing one another.”

Common ground is Maalouf’s main theme on his new album, Capacity to Love. His ideal
world is explored in the video of the song El Mundo, featuring Brazilian singer 
Flavia Coelho and DJ Tony Romera.

“It’s a world where there’s no judgments,” he says. “We don’t judge people on the
appearances, or on the way they live. We just accept and that doesn’t threaten your
identity. When you accept people in your family, it doesn’t mean that they’re going
to change you, it doesn’t mean that you’re threatened. It just means that we share
values.”

Maalouf says he doesn’t expect an album to change the world but he is hopeful.

![](https://i0.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/12/22/im1-dca4c5d9cfca82484dcffe869df9f19929337f1e-
s1100-c50.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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