FIAF PRESENTS WORLD NOMADS MOROCCO: MUSIC
[DUNKELBUNT]
A NEW DAY; LAYA PROJECT REMIXED
ADDIS ACOUSTIC PROJECT
AFRO ROOTS WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL
AMADOU & MARIAM
ANTÓNIO ZAMBUJO
APHRODESIA
BALKANBEATS
BANCO DE GAIA
BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR
BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC
BOY WITHOUT GOD
C.J. CHENIER
CARLOS GOGO GOMEZ
CHOBAN ELEKTRIK
CHOPTEETH
CHRISTIANE D
CHRISTINE VAINDIRLIS
CLARA PONTY
COPAL
CUCHATA
DAMJAN KRAJACIC
DANIEL CROS
DEBO & FENDIKA
DEL CASTILLO
DR JAYANTHI KUMARESH
EARTHRISE SOUNDSYSTEM
EGYPT NOIR
ELIN FURUBOTN
EMILY SMITH
FANFARE CIOCARLIA VS. BOBAN & MARKO MARKOVIC
FEUFOLLET
FIAF PRESENTS WORLD NOMADS MOROCCO: MUSIC
FOOTSTEPS IN AFRICA
GECKO TURNER
GENTICORUM
GEOFF BERNER
GIANMARIA TESTA
GODS ROBOTS
GUARCO
HUUN HUUR TU
INDIAN OCEAN
IRENE JACOB & FRANCIS JACOB
JANAKA SELEKTA
JANYA
JERRY LEAKE
JOAQUIN DIAZ
JOEL RUBIN
JORGE STRUNZ
JOSEF KOUMBAS
JOYFUL NOISE (I GRADE RECORDS)
JUST A BAND
KAMI THOMPSON
KARTICK & GOTAM
KHALED
KHING ZIN & SHWE SHWE KHAING
KITKA'S CAUCASIAN CONNECTIONS PROJECT PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS
KMANG KMANG
KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS
LA CHERGA
LAC LA BELLE
LAYA PROJECT
LENI STERN
LES TRIABOLIQUES
LISTEN FOR LIFE
LOBI TRAORÉ
LO'JO
LOKESH
MAGNIFICO
MAHALA RAI BANDA
MIDNITE
MOHAMMED ALIDU AND THE BIZUNG FAMILY
MR. SOMETHING SOMETHING
MY NAME IS KHAN
NAWAL
NAZARENES
NO STRANGER HERE (EARTHSYNC)
OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS ON TOUR
OCCIDENTAL GYPSY
OREKA TX
ORQUESTRA CONTEMPORÂNEA DE OLINDA
PABLO SANCHEZ
PEDRO MORAES
RAYA BRASS BAND
SALSA CELTICA
SAMITE
SARA BANLEIGH
SARAH AROESTE
SELAELO SELOTA
SHYE BEN-TZUR
SIA TOLNO
SIBIRI SAMAKE
SISTER FA
SLIDE TO FREEDOM II
SONIA BREX
SOSALA
SWEET ELECTRA
SYSTEMA SOLAR
TAGA SIDIBE
TAJ WEEKES
TARANA
TARUN NAYAR
TE VAKA
TELEPATH
THE MOUNTAIN MUSIC PROJECT
THE NATIVE AMERICA NORTH SHOWCASE
THE SPY FROM CAIRO
TITO GONZALEZ
TOUSSAINT
VARIOUS ARTISTS
VARIOUS ARTISTS
WATCHA CLAN
WHEN HARRY TRIES TO MARRY SOUNDTRACK
WOMEXIMIZER
WOMEXIMIZER
ZDOB SI ZDUB
ZIETI
Concert Review

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National Geographic, Concert Review >>

Earlier this month Nat Geo Music sent special correspondent Evangeline Kim to cover a series of extraordinary Moroccan cultural events taking place in New York City as the World Nomads Morocco Festival, this is the first of her two-part series. Read part two here.

It is said that the highest values in Moroccan culture include learning, community, faith, and the love of beauty. And these were the values explored during the month of May by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in their splendid cultural festival, World Nomads Morocco. They were woven throughout the programmed concerts, art installations, cinema screenings, and stimulating talks on advances for women, architecture, and cultural sustainability by eminent Moroccan scholars and authors.

The festival was a felicitous and especially timely program, while developments with the Arab Spring in North African and Middle-Eastern political histories grip news headlines. Yet Morocco today differs from neighbors in the region, according to the scholars and experts who spoke during the festival. Morocco is undergoing a socio-cultural revolution with much less emphasis on the political.

Zeyba Rahman served as Chief Curator of the FIAF festival with great finesse along with a strong team of co-curators. Global-themed festivals in New York (and the U.S.) tend to focus mainly on the performing arts - as pleasurable as they are. It's to be hoped for, however, that broader, enriching, multi-disciplinary cultural programming, as the World Nomads Morocco Festival exemplified, will become a larger trend. Here's a summary of the festival's outstanding moments.

The Music:

The excellent music programming comprised five concerts over the month. The vast, rich diversities in Morocco's musical world ranged from the traditional and classical to Amazigh virtuosities, a woman's cool rap and Gnawa music. Each concert was part of the overall exploration of Moroccan historical geographies in some of the New York's best acoustics venues.

One of Morocco's greatest groups, the Orchestra of Fes - with the cherished soprano Françoise Atlan opened the festival, April 30th, at Florence Gould Hall, in a concert of Judeo-Arab Andalusian music. The music is considered classical music, distinct from traditional folk or pop. The form is sung mystical and love poetry written by both Jews and Muslims during the Middle Ages in Arabic, Hebrew, and Ladino. The city of Fes is one of the key places in North Africa where Arab-Andalusian music has been most preserved since the fall of Granada and the end of the Kingdom of Al Andalus in 1492.

The evening's ambiance was one of delectation and ecstatic joy, as the seven seated musicians including the famed conductor Mohamed Briouel, all wearing burgundy Fes hats, long robes, and yellow babouches, sang and played their instruments: alto, violin, oud, taar, rebab, and derbouka, with exceptional mastery. When a smiling Ms. Atlan appeared and joined the group, cascades of exquisite harmonies resonated throughout the hall.

On May 5th, the Amazigh composer, vocalist and instrumentalist, Brahim Fribgane delivered an all too short set of Amazigh music at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. After opening with a solo piece sung in Moroccan Arabic dialect and self-accompanied on electric oud, he formed a trio with two more rarely heard singer-musicians from the Middle Atlas region, the heart of Amazigh culture: Abderrahim Boutat on the large, ancient Amazigh loutar, Ahmed Sahel on bendir frame drum and Mr. Fribgane also on bendir. The Amazigh (or Berber) people were the earliest historical inhabitants of Morocco.

They sang traditional songs of love and yearning and of life's unfairness and suffering, and a quickened dance rhythm, all usually played to give comfort and solace to Amazigh communities. There are no women Amazigh singers in New York but the trio plans to release a CD that will include a woman in their musical call and response structure between male chorus and high-pitched female singer.

The night's bill was shared by French-Lebanese trumpeter, Ibrahim Maalouf, who combined jazz and traditional Arabic music. After Mr. Maalouf's solo set with a pianist, Mr. Fribgane joined him on the box drum. It was easy to see why Mr. Fribgane is in demand by many musicians, with his fluid, sure-handed percussionist expertise.

The following evening at Joe's Pub, the popular pioneering woman rapper from Rabat, Soultana, dressed in candy pink leggings, a black satin sports vest and sneakers, paced back and forth on the stage, rapping a set full of conviction and fire. Her beats recalled the early '80s hip-hop days in the Bronx that signified protest and self-empowerment. Her turntablist accompanist, the well-known, popular DJ K-Salaam from the Bronx created bubbling layers of rhythmic hooks over heavy bass beats.

At the very start, Soultana screened her video that carries and promotes her song about the degradation of women prostitutes. She's a young star with plenty of charisma and punch, as she raps and talks about the ills of society where women undergo abuse, violence, and poverty. Her earnest consciousness, irrefutable conviction and sparkling charm won over both men and women in the audience.

New York-based master gnawa musician, Hassan Hakmoun, curated the fourth show at Florence Gould Hall, May 21st, "Master Gnaoua Musicans in Concert." Those gnawa musicians could surely put most anyone into a mesmerized healing trance with their constant repetitive clattering on large metal double-headed castanets, the qaraqab, the bass drumming, and the deeply lulling sentir lute in an actual traditional night-long Lila ceremony, but the night was meant to showcase the art of gnawa culture in a celebratory way.

One surprise twist came about with Mr. Hakmoun's newest innovation for himself and the musicians: tap shoes. Usually, gnawa musicians dance, crouch and leap, twirl and tumble around bare-footed. A whole new polyrhythmic dimension was added by the intricate sound of syncopated clicks as the musicians enjoyed dancing dialogues with each other - along with singing, clapping, and playing their instruments. Their mystical repertoire was filled with praise songs to saints and the memory of late gnawa elders.

Two of the three masters or "maalems," renowned gnawa singers and lute/guimbri players, Maalem Mahmoud Guinea from Essaouria and Maalem Mustapha Bakbou from Marrakech, wore babouches slippers. Maalem Hassan Zgarhi from Marrakech opted for the "talking shoes" along with Mr. Hakmoun and the other younger musicians. It was above all the stately, older Maalems themselves and Hassan Hakmoun who, one by one, commanded the stage, as they wailed away and plucked their lutes.

The finale FIAF presentation concert at Zankel Hall, May 26th, was the New York and U.S. debut of the dazzling 29 year old Moroccan-Hungarian classical pianist, Maraoun Benabdallah. His western classical training at the Bela Bartok Conservatory and the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest seems to have influenced his style of playing - combining techniques both assertively muscular and lyrically tender, depending on the passage or composition.

His repertoire was strenuous. The focus selections met curatorial festival considerations to illuminate Morocco's diverse musical geographies and historical influences from Spain and France, Arabia and Africa. His opening was Rachmaninoff's most difficult and lengthy composition, "Piano Sonata No.1 in D minor, Op.28," very rarely played in its entirety in a concert. Mr. Maraoun, to the amazement of the audience, blazed through all three movements with bold assurance.

He followed with pieces from Ravel's "Miroirs," Debussy's "Estampes," Albeniz' "Suite Espagnole, Op. 47," two songs by Moroccan composer Benabdeljalil, and Saint-Saens' "Africa - Fantasy for Solo Piano, Op. 89." His first encore was four short pieces by Bartok and his second was Bach's sprightly though wistful and gentle "Prelude in B minor."

Moroccan Women and Visual Arts:

Morocco's women took center stage in the visual arts. Preceding the May 5th opening of the women's art show, "Sense and Essence" in the FIAF art gallery, Ambassador-at-Large Assia Bensaleh Alaoui moderated a lively luncheon discussion about women and artists in Morocco. The panel included three artists, Amina Agueznay, Safaa Erruas, and Najia Mehadji, and musicians, Françoise Atlan and Soultana.

The ambassador's opening remarks provided insights about the national reforms taking place in the country, where women's rights are being strengthened in marriage, divorce, child custody, and even polygamy. She characterized the changes as a true cultural revolution that gives major focus to the fight against illiteracy. Education, she emphasized, is the cornerstone of advancement and empowerment, and essential to human rights. Within a deepening democratization process and constitutional revisions, women will benefit the most. Newer laws, she maintained, will become effective only through practice and necessary changes in mindsets and actual behaviors.

The panel of women artists and musicians, she noted, were very representative of Moroccan society, as she contrasted the celebration of Andalusian musical history in Ms. Atlan's work with Soultana's voice of youth, rebellion, and rap. In this blend of tradition and modernity, among all the women panelists, newer modes of expression are being explored and forged. As each panelist spoke, one sensed a tremendously high level of sophistication, intelligence, self-knowledge, in-depth historical knowledge about their artistic métiers, and keen awareness about the challenges facing creative women in society.

The ambassador's concluding comments were an overview of socio-cultural changes initiated long ago for all of Moroccan civil society in the context of the more recent Arab Spring. Newer trends and identities are beginning to develop in Morocco. Schools are giving more opportunities to the impoverished illiterate. Youth and children are becoming more important. Culture and art, once regarded as luxurious and exclusive, are becoming much more open and inclusive. And women are in much stronger positions than ever before - with vital, newer opportunities for economic leverage.

Nawal Slaoui, based in Casablanca with Cultures Interface (culturesinterface.com), curated "Sense and Essence," the impressive group exhibition by the three leading women artists. All the site-specific pieces were specially commissioned for the festival and they are assuredly worthy of contemporary museums.

Amina Agueznay, trained as an architect here in the U.S., worked with 26 women master artisans to create the work entitled "Skin," a suspended, densely thick, natural-hued curtain of recycled fishing net incorporating many kinds of other materials including threads, sequins, plastic pearls, twine, and steel wire. "Skin" stretched across the gallery entrance measuring 200 square feet. The ten techniques the craftswomen employed were beading, decorative "randa" needle work (usually used in jellabas and caftans), knitting, sewing, pompoms (two types), rope weaving, crochet, braiding, traditional "El Mrama" weaving, and macramé. Secret stories and tremendous pride by the community of craftswomen seemed woven into the magnificent draping mass of web-like tangles, tassels, fine needlework, and the overall structure.

In artistic dialogue with Ms. Agueznay, Safaa Erruas created "Invisibles," an aerial installation with suspended metal disc-shaped sieves from which thousands of attached white cotton threads streamed gently to the floor, while defining and containing spatial volume. Miniature black and white photographs of the eyes of the twenty-six women craftswomen who created "Skin," were attached to the threads.

Najia Mehadji's three black and white photographs, "Mystic Dance 1, 2, and 3," 63" x 63" each, appeared to be slow motion stream photos of Sufi Dervish dancers whirling in the cosmos. But upon closer look, the white swirls were actually gestural paintings on a black background, painted by Ms. Mehadji herself. She then expanded the scale of the images by photographing and enlarging them. They were as abstract, beautiful, and fascinating as the works by her fellow artists. The exhibit was mysteriously feminine, invited meditative contemplation, and harmonious in its unity and balance.

Note: Apart from the gallery exhibit during the festival there were also viewing opportunities to marvel over carpets woven with centuries-old geometric patterns and symbolic designs by Berber women.

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