Basel Rajoub

Who is Basel Rajoub?

Basel Rajoub is a Syrian musician, composer and saxophone player. He was born in Aleppo in 1981 and started his musical career performing on trumpet before joining Aleppo's conservatory where he studied eastern and European classical music, as well as jazz. Basel's music has hints of jazz mixed with eastern rhythms in addition to piano and brass. He recently performed with the Syrian singer Lena Chamamyan and they won the Radio Monte Carlo award in September 2006. Both artists gained a wide popularity in the Arab world especially after they performed Live in a number of cities like Cairo, Amman, Paris, Vienna and of course Damascus.

Rajoub played Saxophone in the British Council sponsored tour for the album "Sprinting Gazelle" by London based Palestinian singer and ethnomusicologist Reem Kelani along with two Syrian musicians: Amir Qara Jouli and Simon Mreach, in addition to three of Kelani's British band: Patrick Illingworth, Oli Hayhurst and Zoe Rahman. The debut represented songs from Palestine and the diaspora in a way that seemed both modern and ancient.