Following the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, it is the turn of Essaouira to host the 19th edition of the Gnaoua Festival of World Music. Unfortunately there has been a lack of scheduling arrangements between the two festivals with a two day overlapThis failure by the organisers means that the Essaouira event begins on the 12th of May with Fez ending on the 14th and so fans will forced to miss either the last two great nights in Fez or the first two in Essaouira.
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| Hoba Hoba Spirit - not to be missed |
The Gnaoua Festival runs until the 15th. It will include tributes to three legendary musicians who died during 2015; Mahmoud Guinea, Tayeb Saddiki and the Senegalese Doudou N'Diaye Rose.
The opening concert will dedicated be to Mahmoud Guinea and Doudou N'Diaye Rose. The diva Rachida Talal will be accompanied on stage by Mokhtar Guinea's brother Mahmoud and 12 percussionists, all children of Doudou.
As in previous editions, several big names of jazz will be present including Randy Weston, a pioneer of Gnaoua-jazz fusion, Jazz-funk bassist legend Jamaaledden Tacuma and rising star, jazz trumpeter Christian Scott.
The biggest news from 19th edition of the Gnaoua Festival will be an appearance by one of the temporarily reunited Hoba Hoba Spirit, one of the most innovative groups in recent years. Also on the bill is Blitz the Ambassador from Ghana, who is expected to serve up a mixture of African sounds, High-life and Afrobeat, with his original hip hop.
Another tribute concert will close the festival. Tayeb Saddiki will be honoured through a benefit led by Mohamed Derham, Nabil El Khaldi, Sayed Omar and Mustapha Maâlem Baqbou.
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1 comment:
I agree that clash of dates is a true blunder for cultural programming in Morocco. Also the lack of sharing of costs to allow artists to appear at both festivals back-to-back is a real missed opportunity too. Great, great artists to appear in Fes - why not give them an extra date while they are in the country and have the 2 festivals split travel costs? Would make perfect sense.
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