Nawfel

Nawfel—this kid is unbelievable. Well, he’s not so much of a kid anymore: Now, at 22, he’s a full-grown young man and a master guitarist of the highest order. Born in 1985 to emigrant Tunisian parents in Soissons, France, the kid emerged very early on as a juvenile guitar prodigy who had soaked up popular and creative music of every persuasion and fused it into a sound and conception of his own.The kid has listened to and fully absorbed into his playing an incredible range of music, listing influences from John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock to Brother Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes and Jimmy McGriff, from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Minnie Ripperton to the Stylistics, Curtis Mayfield and Earth Wind & Fire.Then there’s Deodato, George Duke and Boz Scaggs, Prince, Sade and Steely Dan, MC5, the Stooges, the Dead Kennedys and the New York Dolls. The Ramones. Motley Crue. Black Flag. Van Halen and Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Metallica. And the list adds Manu Dibango, Toots & the Maytals, Ruben Blades, Willie Colon, Al Green, Donny Hathaway and Bobby Womack.The kid doesn’t even mention guitar players! It’s clear that he’s dug them all, assimilated every possible lesson to be learned from the innovators and the virtuosos, and invented himself as a heroic guitarist of epic dimension. In his young maturity he’s also developed as a composer and mastered all the instruments he needs to make his music come true in the studio with a minimum of assistance.The guitarist’s panoramic musical vision and masterful delivery power this set of original compositions—plus a spectacular 13-minute outing on Al Kooper’s “I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes”—from the opening notes of Nawfel’s “The Land of the Surfer Dolls” to the closing moments of “Oh Boy!” His conception fuses every sort of guitar heroicism with a sleek, soulful rhythmic thrust that provides a fresh and compelling context for Nawfel’s extended solo excursions.Nawfel’s slashing guitar leads are right out in front, where they belong, and Toma Milteau is always right there behind him on the drums, but the kid fills in the open spaces with his own rhythm guitar, bass, percussions, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3 organ, clavinet, Prophet V, Mellotron, Minimoog, Wurlitzer electric piano, drums, Linn drums programming & sampled vocals.Nawfel made his first recording in Los Angeles in 1999 as a 14-year-old electric guitar phenomenon supported by an all-star cast of musicians led by producer Barry Goldberg, Ivan Neville ..s and vocals, Reggie McBride on bass, and the great Jim Keltner at the drums. With their backing the kid attacks tunes by Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, the Kinsey Brothers, Aretha Franklin, Booker T. Jones and Los Lobos, pinning them down and turning them around with his soulful guitar pyrotechnics and sly, funky rhythmic drive.Eight years later it’s apparent that the kid has been building a following for himself behind the excitement generated by the impact of his initial release, writing his own music and assembling a sympathetic crew of supporting musicians to aid him in accomplishing his musical goals. Here they include his lyric writer (two songs only), Jesse Chaton, ..boards & vocals, Loic Gayot on electric tenor sax, Moussa N’Diaye at the congas, Mom on rhythm guitar and Antoine Arroyo on various basses.Together they perform Nawfel’s songs to perfection, creating with him a throbbing wall of electronic sound—The War of Sound!—that surrounds the listener and never falters, from the surfers-on-acid workout called “Land of the Surfer Dolls” through the boldly anthemic “E. Warriors,” the three wildly psychedelic sections of “The Trip,” the reverential “To Arthur Lee,” the parodic, tongue-in-cheek “Too Mancini,” the brilliantly buoyant “Song for Kelly G,” the romping, stomping "Oh Boy" and the quietly reflective bonus cut at the very end. You can take my word for it: THIS IS A HELL OF A RECORD!!!!—John Sinclair Amsterdam December 15, 2007© 2007 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.