Worldmusic Jazz Western/Northafrican/Arabic JWO’s Maghreb jazz An exciting cross-over with European- and Northafrican musicians. Maghreb refers to the Arab word Gharb, wich means the western part of the Arab world seen from Mekka. Virtuoso Dutch guitar player Jan Wouter Oostenrijk completed his professional Jazz guitar studies at the conservatory of Amsterdam as student of Wim Overgaauw in 1995. He got a degree for classical guitar and took lessons in Flamenco music and Arabic melody. On stage he developed into a great player and his music shows us all corners of the world. At the open university he also studied Arabic language which enables him to express himself and sing in the North African dialect. JWO was part of successful Moroccan formations like Raïland (winner “Gouden Notenkraker “ award in 1996 ) en Noujoum Raï. Nowadays he combines his experiences with the North African music-culture with his own European roots. JWO’s guitar playing is melting excellent with Arabic Sharki, Raï and Chaâby . Together with his band they developed an impressive, innovating crossover between music cultures you could call Maghreb jazz or Jazz Marock. Third solo album ‘Maghreb Jazz Guitar’ is planned to be released in 2006/2007. The album is made from Arab point of view and contains traditionals, own songs and an ethnic approach on jazz standards, also 2 movies of live performances included. The band is not only successful in Holland, in the summers of 2004 and 2005 he played at big international festivals in Morocco like Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech. Beside that he performed with famous Sudanese singers Alkably and Amal Anour at the Dutch embassy in Khartoum, with Gnawa player Majid Bekkas from Marocco and at the fashionshows of Salima Abdel Wahab in Switzerland. Please visit our website www.jwo.nu for more info.