Gordon Grdina’s The Marrow

Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award-winning oud/guitarist whose remarkable career has spanned decades, continents, and a remarkable energy for exploration across genres from avant-garde jazz and free form improvisation to contemporary indie rock, Arabic music and classical Persian.

Grdina’s new middle eastern/avant jazz ensemble is a sextet featuring like-minded musical adventurers: Hamin Honari (percussion), Fathieh Honari (vocals), Mark Helias (bass), Mark Feldman (violin), Neelamjit Dhillon (tabla) 

“The Marrow is specifically shaped around Grdina’s love of the oud,” says music writer Alexander Varty. “He’s studied with Middle Eastern masters of the lute-like instrument, and has been playing it since he was a teenager.”

Grdina’s compositions are mostly based on classical Arabic maqam and Persian dastgah traditions, but are performed in a creative jazz context where improvised group interplay is as important as solos. The music is intricate and often delicate with a deep connection to the past. While it defies easy categorization, it is both compelling and engaging. “The band’s two recordings for the Songlines imprint, Ejdeha and Safar-e-Daroon, strike a perfect balance between improvisational freedom, traditional Middle Eastern forms, and postmodern composition. They’re also sophisticated and wildly impassioned, qualities that are not always easy to merge,” says Varty.