Dhafer Youssef

Born in Tusnisia, Dhafer Youssef began singing at the age of five, learning at a traditional Koran school, but at the same time being drawn to music he heard on the radio – the only source of entertainment in his small town. With no spare money to buy musical instruments, Youssef made his own oud (Arabic lute) out of whatever he could find and taught himself to play by ear.

When a friend brought an electric guitar back from his travels Youssef yearned to get his hands on it. Eventually his friend lent Youssef the guitar for a few days at a time and for those precious days he did not sleep, he just played. Youssef then set about saving money by singing at weddings to buy his first oud, the instrument he had fallen in love with, the sound of his roots, the country where he was born:

"If I'd been born elsewhere in Africa I'd have been a drummer. In New York- a sax player. But I was born in Tunisia -I play the oud. If I'd been brought up near a piano maybe I'd have played that, but actually I didn't even see my first piano until I went to Vienna when I was 19."

Moving to Austria, Youssef immersed himself in the local music scene, doing anything he could to earn money, survive and keep playing. During this time he went to jazz and classical shows and discovered the delights of Indian music. Youssef’s big break came when the jazz club Porgy and Bess gave him a carte blanche for a whole year.  He could do whatever he wanted once a month inviting the best of Europe’s experimental jazz community to play with him. Youssef’s first album, Malak, came from these sessions.

Youssef has released numerous albums of his own and has also done notable work with Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu. He has an affinity for Indian and Nordic music and he was a guest artist on the Norwegian jazz artist Bugge Wesseltoft's album FiLM iNG. Dhafer has also performed with Uri Caine, Jon Hassell, Markus Stockhausen, Nguyên Lê, Wolfgang Muthspiel and the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa.

With his deeply affecting vocal style, a variable approach on the oud and complex Arab-colored compositions, Dhafer Youssef is among today’s shooting stars in this crossover field.

"It's music that tethers Third World beats to First World technology, a thin cross-cultural membrane connecting the ancient with the modern, the sacred with the profane." – Mojo

"...the Tunisian vocalist and oud virtuoso juxtaposes the ancient, mystical, hypnotic music of Islamic Sufism with the textures of electric jazz.” – Time Out

“Dhafer Youssef charts the point where Arabic and European music meet” - New Statesman