Blue Maqams is the latest studio album by Tunisian oud player and composer Anouar Brahem, recorded in New York in May 2017 and released on ECM October that same year.

"[2] Writing for The Guardian reviewer John Fordham stated "Brahem’s oud often sketches in the themes, sometimes shadowed by the others in dreamy twilight reflections, more often accelerating into languidly swaying nightwalks such as the title track.

Spanish-tinged guitar-like jams end in drum flurries, while thumping Holland bass vamps release scintillating jazz breakouts ... It’s a real meeting of hearts and minds.

"[4] RTÉ reviewer Paddy Kehoe called it "Entrancing, essential stuff" declaring "Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem marries the resonant stringed instrument of that name skilfully and intuitively in a glorious collaboration with the work of bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and pianist Django Bates on Blue Maqams.

Shifting and rolling along in the seductive current, the original native Maghreb thread is never lost in the tentatively subtle explorations at play on this album.