Michel Sajrawy & Yathrib

YATHRIB – the name of a city, also called Medina, a five-day foot march from Mekka. And accordingly, the second most holy city of Islam , being the home of Mohammed's grave, which lies in a magnificent mosque.

YATHRIB – fertile oasis, about 200 km land inwards east of the Red Sea . Surrounded by the wild foothills of the Hijaz massif. Home of Arab and Jewish tribes. Melting pot of these cultures.

YATHRIB – Debut album of MICHEL SAJRAWYS, of a man and virtuoso guitarist, who like no other unites seemingly insurmountable differences with his vita and with his music..

YATHRIB – These are Jews, Muslims and Christians, who together create a sound experience, a music, completely at ease and far removed from any issues of faith or differences – be it on stage or in the studio – who will surely remain unparalleled for a long time to come.

Guitarist and composer Michel Sajrawy was born to a Palestinian family from Nazareth. At the age of nine he started taking guitar lessons. During the years 1990-93 he studied for and received a diploma in electronic engineering. In 1995 he moved to London, England, where he studied and completed a one-year diploma at the Musicians' Institute - G.I.T. He began a three-year degree program in music composition at The London College of Music in 1996 under the instruction and assistance of Adam Gorb.. During the years 1999-2000 Michel furthered himself with the assistance of Adam Gorb and Nigel Clark to complete his masters degree in film and TV scoring.

In 2000 he returned to Israel and established his own business Dasam Studio in Nazareth (Dasam is a word in Arabic for ''rich food''). As a band leader, he released his debut album Yathrib (Ozella Music 2006) which marked his entrance into the vanguard of crossover artists who see themselves creating an uncompromising jazz sound between traditional and contemporary. Then released his second album, Writings On The Wall (Ozella Music 2009) which marked a strong turning towards filigree west-eastern acoustic jazz. Among the jazz releases, the album became on the Top List "Best albums of 2009" of Freies Radio Stuttgart in Germany.

Michel can easily join the ranks of seminal jazz guitarists. With his band, he played in different parts of the country, toured in Germany and played the Leipzig Jazz Festival (2006), played in Geneva, Jerusalem Festival (2007) where he met and jammed with Nigel Kennedy. He played in the Netherlands (2008), the same year that the New York jazz scene had the pleasure of experiencing his explosive guitar art.

Michel has been awarded the Wilfred Joseph Prize (1998-99), Best Title in Music (2002) and the A. M. Qattan Foundation's Performing Arts Grant for the year 2007.

He worked with Abboud Abdel'All, Bashir Abdel'All, Ahmad Al-Mukhtar, Samir Jubran and Manfred Leuchter. He composed music for several documentary films, arranged the music for theatre, various mini orchestral projects and produced radio jingles for the major brands in the country.