Recording: Mustafa Rafiq & Friends

Artist: Mustafa Rafiq & Friends

Song: [excerpt, in two parts]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), August 19, 2025.

Mustafa Rafiq & Friends - [excerpt, part 1]

Mustafa Rafiq & Friends - [excerpt, part 2]

Visiting from Edmonton, Mustafa Rafiq set the stage for this group encounter with some tasty Tuareg-inspired guitar work, that infinite moving-but-staying-put melodic sensibility creating space for the local musicians to swirl around. (Those Toronto connections were: Sara Constant, flutes; Marilyn Yogarajah, trumpet and kalimba; Karen Ng, saxophone and percussion; and Lenny, voice and percussion.)

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

Recording: Mustafa Rafiq, Marilyn Yogarajah & Lenny

Artist: Mustafa Rafiq, Marilyn Yogarajah & Lenny

Song: He is Quiet and So Am I [poem by Mahmoud Darwish]

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), August 19, 2025.

Mustafa Rafiq, Marilyn Yogarajah & Lenny - He is Quiet and So Am I

This show collected together some of Edmonton experimentalist Mustafa Rafiq's Toronto connections; the whole group would play a set together, but the evening started with solo, duo, and trio mini-sets. For this trio encounter, Rafiq used Mahmoud Darwish's poem to provide a framework to improvise around.

You can check out some more from the first half's mini-sets over on youtube:

Recording: Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq

Artist: Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents Series), June 14, 2023.

Jairus Sharif & Mustafa Rafiq - unknown

This highly-anticipated set from Calgary saxophonist Jairus Sharif (who impressed with last year's Water & Tools album, issued by Telephone Explosion) saw him dive deeper into his sounds, stripping back much of the album's percussive drive in favour of surging spiritual explorations. Huge credit there to guitarist Mustafa Rafiq, who found joy in repetition, underpinning Sharif's sounds, especially in an expansive take on the album's "Humility", where his patient fuzzed-out bassline gave Sharif oodles of space to inhabit. Sharif also occupied physical space, falling to his knees and even laying down to play when not prowling around with bells and other hand percussion. A joyful release of energy, auguring further developments in the healing force of the universe.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!