Guitar aficionado and Quarter-tone instrument specialist Jan Wouter Oostenrijk will re-issue his Sharqi Blues album on 20th October 2023. Here are some notes and background to the release. About Sharqi Blues Sharq is the Arabic word for East and refers to Middle Eastern Bellydance culture, here on this album combined with Afro-American Blues and Jazz influences About Jan Wouter Oostenrijk Virtuoso guitar player Jan Wouter Oostenrijk (JWO) completed his professional Jazz guitar studies at the conservatory of Amsterdam (1995) and got an award for his contribution to the Dutch live music with Moroccan formation Railand. Past 25 years he has proven, not only with the Sharqi Blues album, but also with his other albums, to be one of the most interesting guitar players around. Technically gifted, original, with emotion and sense of adventure. In his music we’ll find energetic dance-able North African rhythms and melodic improvisations that moves from Jazz-Bebop lines to scre