Brian Prunka & Ayman Asfour: Explorations in Arabic Maqam (RBA)

“Explorations in Arabic Maqam” arrives at Roulette as a live program that treats maqam not as a fixed repertoire, but as a working method for composition and improvisation. Featured performers include We Got Us, Michael Foster with Strings, David Moore, Emilio Modeste and Friends, and Raphael Rogiński playing John Coltrane, placing Arabic modal practice in conversation with contemporary classical and adjacent traditions. In a New York context—where maqam has long lived in immigrant and community settings—the framing brings that knowledge onto an art-music stage without flattening its complexity. One clear takeaway is how the evening makes tuning, ornament, and melodic pathway audible as structure, not color.