October 9, 2023 - - French-Lebanese trumpeter/composer and global music star Ibrahim Maalouf has announced his biggest North American headlining tour to date for April-May 2024, including New York City’s Webster Hall.  Today he has also shared a live performance video of his song “Todo Colores,” which was filmed during GRAMMY weekend 2023 in Los Angeles as part of JAMMCARD's signature event, the JammJam.  The video features Maalouf and his band with special guests Cimafunk and Tank & the Bangas.  “Todo Colores” is from Maalouf’s new album Capacity To Love.  Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfk3Z_wF7E 

Capacity To Love - Maalouf’s 15th studio album - is unlike any he’s previously made, and has been celebrated by New Yorker, NPR All Things Considered, NPR Music, the New York Times, PRI’s The World, People Magazine, WNYC and more.  Featuring Sharon Stone, D Smoke, Pos from De La Soul, Erick the Architect, Gregory Porter, Cimafunk, Tank and the Bangas and many other international stars, it smashes together an array of sounds and all original songs, inspired by hip-hop, r&b, jazz, music from across the globe and Maalouf’s signature trumpet style rooted in his Lebanese roots.  Partly inspired by Maalouf’s love of cinema, Capacity To Love beams with positivity, a grand musical statement based on his belief that community and a sharing of ideas between cultures is the only way for humanity to prevail.  The album begins with Charlie Chaplin’s famous speech in The Dictatorand concludes with a trenchant spoken word that Sharon Stone wrote and recited for this album. 

Maalouf - a major star at home in France - will also headline the Accor Arena in Paris on November 29.  This is Maalouf’s third time headlining France’s biggest arena, with a capacity of 17,000.  See below for his full ‘23-24 performance itinerary.  

Other highlights include a Q&A event at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles which included a chat and performance with special guest and collaborator Angelique Kidjo.  Maalouf also performed at his mentor Quincy Jones’ 90th birthday tribute concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in July, playing alongside Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Jacob Collier and Samara Joy.  He also recently shared a music video for “The Pope” featuring D Smoke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHrCN6W_Zg    

Shortly after Capacity To Love was released last November, Maalouf earned his first-ever GRAMMY nomination, for his album with Angelique Kidjo, Queen of Sheba. Maalouf and Kidjo discussed the album with Rolling Stone, The Talkhouse, Okay Africa and the Tape Op podcast, and SPIN said “it may be the most interesting album of the year.” Glide called it “undoubtedly one of the most important world recordings of the year" while WNYC celebrated the project as “ambitious and expressive.” A soaring 7-part suite, the album was inspired by, and reinvents, the myth of Queen Sheba, an African Queen who heard about the reputation of King Salomon and traveled to Jerusalem to witness the king’s wisdom.

Praise For Capacity To Love

“Maalouf steps out of his comfort zone…Capacity To Love features some of the industry’s best in pop and hip-hop music” - NPR 

“Maalouf envisions one unique culture through music…Capacity To Love opens the doors to and between all kinds of music” - WNYC 

“You’ve probably never heard a trumpeter like Maalouf” - WNYC 

“Maalouf’s track eases between a jazz ballad and unhurried funk, framing and counterpointing the rhymes with his Arab-inflected melodies” - NY Times, on Quiet Culture featuring Pos of De La Soul

“A musical riposte to the right-wing nationalism gripping Europe and other places around the world” - New Yorker

“For more than 15 years, Ibrahim Maalouf has been breaking new ground with his appetite for all kinds of sounds” - The World

Hailed as a “virtuoso” by The New York Times, Maalouf has spent his career crossing borders and blurring genres, mixing jazz, pop, classical, electronic, Middle Eastern, and African influences into a cross-cultural swirl. Born in the midst of a deadly civil war, Maalouf escaped Beirut with his family and spent his formative years in France, where he fell in love with music’s power to transcend geography and language. He has performed in 40 countries, sold out arenas from Paris to Istanbul, has been scouted by Quincy Jones and raised millions for charity. In the fall of 2021 he performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, introduced by Jon Batiste as “a living legend of jazz” and performed in front of the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day for an audience of six million.