From Tunisia With Love A Meeting of Worlds in Jazz
In the early 1990s on a warm night in Carthage four musicians from different corners of the world came together to create something rare and beautiful. The recording of that evening became From Tunisia With Love an album that captures not only the music but also the spirit of cultural exchange and shared humanity. Featuring Tunisian guitarist Mamdouh Bahri, American pianist Horace Parlan, Italian bassist Riccardo Del Fra, and New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad, the record stands as a testament to jazz’s ability to transcend borders.
At its heart is Mamdouh Bahri a musician born in Sfax Tunisia in 1957 who carried the rhythms and melodies of his homeland wherever he went. When he moved to Montpellier in his twenties Bahri fell in love with jazz drawing inspiration from greats like Wes Montgomery and George Benson. He soon began forging his own voice a guitar style that wove Mediterranean warmth into the language of modern jazz. By the late 1980s Bahri was performing across Europe and had assembled a remarkable quartet with Parlan Del Fra and Muhammad. Their performance in Carthage in 1991 later released as From Tunisia With Love became a highlight of his career and a document of Tunisia’s place in the global jazz conversation.
Each of Bahri’s partners brought with him a rich story. Horace Parlan, born in Pittsburgh in 1931, had overcome childhood polio that left his right hand partially paralyzed. What could have been an obstacle became his strength. He developed a highly original piano style built on strong left hand chords and inventive rhythmic right hand phrases. Parlan first rose to prominence in the late 1950s with Charles Mingus’s Jazz Workshop playing on iconic albums like Mingus Ah Um and Blues and Roots. By the time he appeared in Carthage Parlan had already moved to Denmark where he became a leading voice in the European jazz scene his sound always soulful and searching.
Riccardo Del Fra, born in Rome in 1956, had started his musical journey on guitar before switching to the double bass at sixteen. His lyrical approach and warm tone soon made him one of Europe’s most in demand players. He worked with the Italian RAI Orchestra and most famously shared a long partnership with the great Chet Baker performing and recording with him for nearly a decade. Del Fra brought to the Carthage stage not just technical mastery but a melodic sensibility that bridged European classical refinement and jazz improvisation.
At the drums was Idris Muhammad, a groove master from New Orleans born Leo Morris in 1939. From an early age he was steeped in the rhythms of his hometown playing on R and B hits like Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” before moving fully into the world of jazz. After converting to Islam and taking the name Idris Muhammad he became one of the most versatile drummers of his generation recording funky groove heavy albums like Power of Soul and backing artists ranging from Lou Donaldson to Pharoah Sanders. His presence in Carthage gave the group a pulse that was both deep and fluid a heartbeat that grounded the music while keeping it in constant motion.
When these four musicians joined forces for From Tunisia With Love the result was more than a simple concert. It was a dialogue between cultures. Bahri’s guitar carried the inflections of North Africa Parlan’s piano added hard bop grit Del Fra’s bass brought lyrical European elegance and Muhammad’s drumming tied it all together with soulful drive. The album radiates warmth as though the music itself were extending an embrace from Tunisia to the world.
More than three decades later From Tunisia With Love remains a powerful reminder of what jazz does best. It connects people. It shows how a Tunisian guitarist an American pianist an Italian bassist and a New Orleans drummer could meet on stage and through improvisation and trust find common ground. It is music born of differences yet bound by the universal language of rhythm melody and emotion.
In many ways the album’s title says it all. It is not just from Tunisia but offered with love a gift from four musicians who believed that sharing their voices could create harmony across continents. To listen to it today is to feel that same spirit alive and timeless.
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