About

     Ayman Fanous has been described as a “master musician/composer pursuing the most imaginative alternatives to the status quo… who has honed distinctive and unconventional methods on both guitar and bouzouki, managing to synergize classical, flamenco, and free jazz techniques” (Karl Ackerman, allaboutjazz.com). His signature sound has been described as a “stylistic amalgam of Derek Bailey and Paco de Lucia” (Jay Collins, Signal to Noise). In addition to the guitar, Fanous also reaches back into his Egyptian ancestry in improvisations on the bouzouki. This is informed by many years of absorbing influences from the musical traditions of the Arab world, Turkey, India, North Africa, Persia, and the Balkans. More recently, he has developed extended electric guitar techniques using a slide.

     Fanous has led duos, trios, and quartets with numerous world-renowned jazz and improvisational musicians, including Frances-Marie Uitti, Bern Nix, Tomas Ulrich, Jason Hwang, William Parker, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Feldman, Joe McPhee, Denman Maroney, Elliott Sharp, Mat Maneri, Lori Freedman, Greg Howard, Daniel Levin, Kinan Azmeh, Chris Speed, Robert Dick, Andrea Parkins, Ikue Mori, Susan Alcorn, Darius Jones, and Tatsuya Nakatani.

     Fanous's duo CD with Tomas Ulrich, Labyrinths (Konnex Records, 2007), was described as "the benchmark for all cello-guitar duo recordings" (Signal to Noise). His duo CD with violinist Jason Hwang, Zilzal (Innova Recordings, 2013), was described by Robert Iannopollo (in Cadence Magazine) as "one of the finest duet recordings I've heard in recent memory." In 2019, he released a duo CD, Negoum, with cellist Frances-Marie Uitti on Mode Records. It was the first in the Fanous Edition of Mode, which will feature Fanous's collaborations with numerous artists from a wide variety of genres. Negoum was described as "beyond magic" by Tyran Grillo in the New York Jazz Record.