Fez Festival round-up

At first glance, this year's Fes Festival of World Sacred Music's programme didn't seem all that exciting. But in fact it turned out to be one of the more successful festivals in recent years.

The Fes Meetings were reported to be informative and inspiring and the Festival in the City drew the crowds. The opening concert at Bab Makina by Marcel Khalife, while criticised by some as being 'not spiritual', was a huge success and a much more festive event than many in the past.

Our pick of the highlights include the Corsican group I Muvrini, Keyvan Chemirani's fusion of music from Morocco, Spain and Greece and the Razbar Group from Iranian Kurdistan.

Perhaps the most important innovation was the addition of side screens at Bab Makina to benefit not only those sitting further back, but also wonderful for close-ups of the artists. The video producer did a good job. Common features at large concert venues around the world, these screens are a most welcome addition. We also had a new Arabic/English announcer at the evening concerts, whose English was markedly better, though she could still do with a better-written script.

Artistic Director Gerard Kurdjian and announcer Nadia Lazrak

Audience behaviour was markedly better, with fewer people speaking on their cellphones during concerts, though the phones were still on for taking photos and sending text messages. We only spotted one altercation between an audience-goer and a photographer.

Marked by cold, blustery evenings, this festival saw its share of peculiar behaviour with one woman having a manic episode during a concert, a German man with his dog in a specially-designed backpack, and if you weren't wearing silver, you just didn't make the grade. Organisers had some headaches with three changes to the programme - two of them last-minute when gospel singer Marwa Wright had a heart-attack and was replaced by cousin Patricia Wright, and when Loreena McKennitt had to cancel. She was replaced by Toumani Diabate of Mali, which made for a rousing final concert. Organisers and locals were rewarded by an extra, free concert from Sami Yusuf given to the people of Fez in Boujloud Square on the last night.

All in all, then, a successful Festival. The View from Fez team thanks the organisers for the opportunity to report on the Festival and is looking forward to next year.

The dates of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music next year have been announced:

4-12 June 2010

We apologise for the lack of photographs: our favourite photographer had to leave Fez and missed the last two concerts. Photos will follow as soon as possible.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Toumani Diabate at final Fez concert

From the moment he stepped onto the stage, Toumani Diabate had the audience on their feet and dancing at the final concert of the Fez Festival at Bab Makina.

Diabate and his Le Symmetric Orchestra hail from Mali. Diabate is a griot, descended from 71 generations of musicians and is probably the greatest kora player today. The kora is a 21-string instrument unique to West Africa.

Diabate has played with some world-renowned musicians such as Ali Farka Toure and Salif Keita, and has been honoured for his contribution towards the development of the kora which is now played in many musical genres.

Artistic Director, Gerard Kurdjian, is to be congratulated on securing this superb artist for the final concert at the last minute, after Loreen McKennitt was forced to cancel her appearance. It was, perhaps, a more fitting finale - the audience were certainly appreciative.

The concert ended with the appearance on stage with Diabate of the Aissawa and Hamadcha Sufi Brotherhoods, an echo of last year's performance of the Hamadcha with Ismael Lo. In the words of the Festival organisers, "After nine days of travelling to all corners of the globe for sacred music, the Festival now returns to Fez and its secular traditions, with the music and songs of these brotherhoods that are part of the soul of the city and of Morocco."

We apologise for the lack of photographs: our favourite photographer had to leave Fez and missed the last two concerts. Photos will follow as soon as possible.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Iranian Kurds provide colour at Fez Festival

The Group Razbar gave a lively performance of songs of the Brotherhood of Ahl-e-Haqq ('People of Truth') at the Batha Museum and the audience thoroughly enjoyed this final afternoon concert.

The troupe encompasses women as well as men, an unusual configuration for Sufi groups. The the women were brightly dressed in flowing dresses and headgear and occasionally got up to dance.

The main instrument is the tanbour (hand drum), and there was also the kamantche (stringed instrument), ney flute and the reedy dozal clarinet. They were put to good use in the exuberant rendition of Dhikr (remembering God).

We apologise for the lack of photographs: our favourite photographer had to leave Fez and missed the last two concerts. Photos will follow as soon as possible.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Sami Yusuf announces free Fez concert

Sami Yusuf at Bab Makina last night.

A free concert by Sami Yusuf will be held at Bab Boujloud at 10.30 this evening. The concert was announced at his wildly successful concert last night at Bab Makina.

This is a major plus for the organisers and for the people of Fez who were unable to get tickets to the main festival event. Because of the huge numbers expected to attend, it is suggested that you get to the square outside Bab Boujloud in plenty of time.

The generosity of Sami Yusuf in making this gesture will even further enhance his already massive reputation in Morocco.



Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Sami Yusuf - sacred pop?

The capacity crowd at Bab Makina.

If there was any need of proof that Sami Yusuf is the most popular pop star in Morocco, it was only necessary to count the heads at the Fez Sacred Music Festival. The Sami Yusuf concert was an absolute sell out and such was the demand that the organisers could have sold the tickets several times over.

The Guardian says Yusuf "has good claim to being the most famous British Muslim in the world". In 2006 Time Magazine called him "Islam's biggest rock star". (For some reason the festival programme had him as "Yussuf", despite his preferred "Yusuf".)



Singing and speaking in English was a big plus for many in the audience who have struggled with the French, Serbian, Italian and Arabic all week! Naturally Sami Yusuf also sang in Arabic, but when he did it was songs that were well known around the world.

The only downside of putting on a pop star at a sacred music festival is that the audience acts as if it is a rock concert. Within minutes of Sami Yusuf starting into his second song the front rows resembled a mosh-pit. All good fun.

Sami Yusuf was born in 1980 in the city of Tehran, Iran. His parents moved to Britain when he was three, and he was raised in West London. At a very young age he started to play various musical instruments and was enthusiastic about singing and composing. He was accepted as a composition student at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In addition to his education in Western harmonics and composition, Sami has a solid understanding of the Iranian and Middle Eastern modes (or Maqams) and is thoroughly acquainted with both East and Western musical traditions - all of which added up to a musician who shredded the elitist tag that the festival has suffered from in the past. And who said pop can't be sacred?

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Swiss ensemble charms Fes Festival

The Elyma Ensemble from Switzerland provided one of the most delightful and animated concerts of the Fez Festival at the Batha Museum on Thursday afternoon.


Founded in 1981 by Argentine Gabriel Garrido, the ensemble specialises in music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This afternoon they delighted the audience with a rendition of Monteverdi's Selva Morale Spirituale, written around 1640.

Gabriel Garrido

five male voices

The ensemble comprises a group of five male voices, two sopranos and a fair number of musicians that were a tight fit under the oak tree at the museum. They performed some spiritual madrigals in Italian, then moved on to sacred songs, hymns, psalms and motets in Latin. There were some interesting instruments including a harp:


The Festival usually features a concert of Baroque music as it's so popular. This one, of slightly earlier music, was greatly appreciated by the audience.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

A Strange Day for the Serbians in Fez

For the group L'Ensemble Melodi from Serbia, the journey to Fez did not start well. somewhere in Brussels their baggage did a vanishing act. Under normal circumstances this can be devastating for any traveller but imagine if you are a performer and your baggage contained the costumes you intended to wear. Such was the fate of the Serbians.

Divna and L'Ensemble Melodi

However, with a burst of lateral thinking, and by crossing ecumenical frontiers, the Serbians realised they were not the only ones who liked to frock up and so headed to the Catholic Church in Fez. They emerged in splendid white robes of an approximate size to the ones they are used to.

Divna Ljubojevic's costume is more of a mystery. Either the baggage trolls had not stolen her luggage, or she found someone with a frock that fitted her amazingly. In any case by concert time she was squeezed into a red number that would have drawn attention in any part of the world.

Divna

Next was the question of noise. An announcement was made that the Serbians had asked for total quiet and stillness during their performance. No pesky photographers running around taking pics In fact all photographers were herded to the back of the crowd where massive telephoto equipment was employed. Worse was to come. Photographs could only be taken for twenty minutes. Why? As a sound technician explained before the performance began "They sing very quietly." Really? Or was it that didn't want too many photographs of Serbian Orthodox singers in Catholic clothes?

But then things turmed really strange. As Divna and L'Ensemble Melodi began, a women in the front of the audience had an "episode" that resulted in her moving in front of the audience waving. Then in the silence a metal book stand crashed to the zellij. Paper blew across the front of the stage and to cap it all off, a large branch snapped from a tree behind them and crashed to the ground.

However, our stalwart Serbians continued with beautiful vocals and were rewarded with very generous applause from an appreciative crowd. There was only one mystery left to explain. The programme notes listed Divna and two men and another woman. A quick check on stage however showed two extra men. Listening to thier fine singing we can assure you they were not baggage handlers from Belgium! We suspect they were simply missed from the programme.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

St John's Gospel at Fez Festival

Thursday night's concert The Gospel according to John at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music attracted a small audience on a cold a blustery night.


This was a pity, because the Youth Orchestra of the Mediterranean Provence-Alpes-Cotes d'Azur worked hard to present an exacting piece by the Syrian Abed Azrie. The work for soloists, choir and orchestra, was sung in Arabic. Azrie brought together eastern and western instruments (for example lute and accordion, ney flute and xylophone) and amalgamated Eastern, Christian and Muslim liturgies.



The Youth Orchestra was conducted by Alain Joutard. It provides young musicians of the Mediterranean region the opportunity to perform professionally and experience life as part of an orchestra in rehearsals and concerts.

And, on a social note, seen at the concert were:

photographer Suzanna Wyatt, on her last night at the Festival

Jess Stephens of Culture Vultures

Jean Dedolin of the French Institute in Fez

And finally, a quiz from our very own fashion pundit, Dominique Niceboites: Whose shoe is this?

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Corsica provides the "wow factor" at Fez Festival

I Muvrini - Magic from Corsica.

There were only five of them - a band from Corsica named after the small wild sheep of their home country, I Muvrini - but within moments of them beginning their performance, the audience at the Batha Museum in Fez knew that they were in for something special. The polyphonic harmonies produced by the four singers had a depth and earthy purity, while taking the listener to somewhere ethereal. Pure magic.

The first bracket of songs - Salve, Requiem, Kierie, Agnus Dei, Terzettu and Moita - were a perfect demonstration of the transcendent qualities of the human voice where the whole was greater than a sum of the parts. The addition of the cello was also superb.

Later in the concert Jean-François Bernardini was engaging in his spoke word contributions as well as the lighter material that he had written himself. But it was the spiritual material that the audience responded to with the most feeling - with one exception. This was the Corsican version of kareoke... where the audience followed cue cards and sang along. It was one of the few times we have ever heard an audience manage to sing in almost perfect harmony!

Corsican karaoke?

Fouzi Skali and festival president Mohammed Kabbaj enjoying the karaoke.

I Muvrini was formed in the early 1980s by the brothers Jean-François Bernardini and Alain Bernardini who were born in the village of Tagliu-Isulacciu in the north of Corsica. They are named after a type of wild sheep which live in the mountains of Corsica.

The Bernardini brothers were introduced to traditional Corsican music at an early age by their father, Ghjuliu, who was a well known poet and singer. They recorded their first single with their father in collaboration with the group Canta u Populu Corsu. Ghjuliu Bernardini died in December 1977 and I Muvrini's first album, I Muvrini ... ti ringrazianu, which was released in 1979, was dedicated to their father's memory.

In 2000, I Muvrini joined up with Sting to record the their most famous song, "Terre d'Oru" (English: Fields of Gold).

Throughout their career they have promoted the Corsican language and culture and have produced over twenty-one albums.

Fouzi Skali chats with oud player Yuval Ron who performed on Monday

Fred Sola enjoying the concert with Catherine.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Keyvan Chemirani back at the Fes Festival

At the Fes Festival in 2006, Keyvan Chemirani presented his work The Rhythm of Speech, gathering together a group of musicians from a wide variety of musical horizons. At this year's festival, he continued with his focus on rhythmic connections between disparate languages and musical styles.

Keyvan Chemirani on percussion

Melos - Sounds of the Mediterranean featured musicians from Greece, France, Morocco and Spain, celebrating the Mediterrean shores as a place of meeting and fusion.

Giorgios Xylouris from Crete played a superb lute piece with Stellios Petrakis on lyra that stunned the audience.

Giorgios Xylouris

He also sang with well-known Moroccan singer Samira Kadiri, who was ably accompanied by Mohamed Mrochdi Mfarredj on qanoun, Nabil Akbib on violin and Mostafa Ahkam on ney.

Samira Kadiri

Esperanza Fernandez

In turn, Samira sang with Esperanza Fernandez whose great Flamenco expertise has been seen at the Festival before. It was hard for Esperanza to keep to her seat - she seemed desperate to get up and dance to her music. Esperanza was accompanied by Salvador Gutierrez on guitar and Jorge Perez on percussion. All the musicians were superb and although they had only rehearsed together for a few days, their timing was impressive.

Samira Kadiri and Esperanza Fernandez

It was a pretty cold and windy evening, but the smallish audience was rewarded by a fascinating fusion of music from around the Mediterranean - altogether a satisfying concert. Enjoying the event were ...

Fatima Sadiqi, Director General of the Festival

Fouad Loudiyi, owner of Riad Les Oudayas in Fez

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Fez Festival of World Sacred Music - Quick Links.

The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music - quick update link will take you to all the stories on the Festival, including reviews of concerts.

Just click the link: Fes Festival of World Sacred Music

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Loreena McKennitt Cancels Fez Festival Performance.

“I’m facing a grave family emergency and being away from home at this time is not an option,” - Loreena McKennitt

McKennitt out of the Fez festival

The View from Fez has managed to confirm this evening that Loreena McKennitt has been forced to cancel the opening concert of her upcoming Mediterranean tour.

She will be unable to participate in the Festival of World Sacred Music in Fez, where she was scheduled to give the closing night concert.

While it was difficult for us to find confirmation from within the Festival, Loreena herself had this to say:

“I’m facing a grave family emergency and being away from home at this time is not an option,” the Stratford, Ontario-based singer said. “It is most difficult to make this unprecedented decision to cancel a concert so close to its date. It’s my greatest hope that I will be able to play this prestigious festival — I’ve been aware of it for so many years — in the future.”

This is the third programme change in the week long-festival and such cancellations would normally make it very difficult for the organisers to find replacements at such short notice.

However, The View from Fez has learned that the replacement has been found and is an exceptional one. It is expected that the Festival will announce it tomorrow (Wednesday) and that it will be Toumani Diabaté the traditional kora player from Mali.

Diabaté into the festival

This is a real win for the festival and hopefully silence those who felt that McKennitt was not a particularly "spiritual" choice. Toumani Diabaté is one the most brilliant players of the kora (a 21 string harp lute from West Africa).

He was born in 1965 in Bamako into a great kora playing family.His father, the late Sidiki Diabaté, was known throughout West Africa as the king of the kora. Sidiki Diabaté raised the instrument from being a simple djeli accompaniment instrument to the rank of solo performer.

Toumani Diabaté began his apprentice ship on the kora at the age of five and made his first public performance eight years later with the Koulikoro Ensemble at the Mali Biennale.

After winning the prize at that performance for Best Traditional Orchestra, he was invited to join Mali's National Ensemble. Toumani toured Gabon and France in 1983, accompanying the great female singer Kandia Kouyaté

In 1987 (then just 21 years old), Toumani broke into the international concert scene with his highly acclaimed album Kaira, still one of the best-selling solo kora albums. Toumani's success as soloist was immediate. He toured Europe, giving fifty concerts in Great Britain alone in 1988.

Toumani has taken the kora to new heights, particularly in his two successful collaborations (Songhai and Songhai 2) with Nuevo Flamenco stars Ketama and bassist Danny Thompson. Songhai was a combination of Malian kora and flamenco, supported by a jazz bass line. Although Toumani is largely self taught, the aggressive improvisatory style pioneered by his father is strikingly evident in Toumani's own unique and inimitable style of playing which is intensely melodic.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Another day at the Fez Festival of Sacred Music.

Souad Massi.

The concert featuring Algerian Souad Massi - "the Algerian Tracy Chapman" turned out to be a very pleasant and gentle acoustic affair, not exactly spiritual, but nevertheless enjoyable in a relaxed way.

Souad's songs have often been based on the frustrations of her country's young people. He career took off in Paris in 1999 after which she decided to remain in France.

Hélène and Catherine

June 2 dawned as a much cooler day and, thankfully, with a slight breeze. Many people took the opportunity to arrive at the Bab Makina early and socialize. Among them two friends visiting from Lyon, Hélène Pouilly and Catherine Diallo. Locals, Khalid el-Akkaqui and Wafae Nachite had managed to grab front row seats and Richard Bee was spotted by our Social and Fashion reporter Dominique Noycebytes moving forward to catch all the action. And yes, the effervescent Kleo, was once again seen in the right place at the right time with our favourite Aussi-import, Josephine.

Locals - Khalid el-Akkaqui and Wafae Nachite

Locals - Kleo and Josephine

All that glitters...

Dominique reports on fashion at the Fez Festival:

The silver accessory fashion craze reached new levels today with this wondrous silver bag, that ( much like a Russian doll) had another bag inside. Most "super-cool" male dresser today was Richard Bee, the only man I know who can make casual look zaz!

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Mayotte women wow the Fes Festival

In the lead-up to the Fes Festival, The View from Fez wagered that the performance by the women from Mayotte would be one of the highlights (see the story and a video here).

It seems we were right - the audience were entranced! The 20-strong group, dressed in sari-like robes of white and purple, used just voice and percussion for their rhythmic presentation of songs of the Sufi tradition. The women dance by swaying and using their richly hennaed hands.


One of the most striking things is the adornments, particularly their gold jewellery, which is remarkable - they have necklaces, earrings, nose studs and full hand bracelets that sparkled in the afternoon sun. Incidently, the Deba of the Women of Mayotte won the French World Music Award this year.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

A Musical Mélange at Batha.

Maya Karasso.

The afternoon concert at the Batha Museum was a performance by the Yuval Ron Ensemble and featured dance by Maya Karasso. Leader of the ensemble, Yuval Ron, works internationally in film, television, dance and theater. Among his many honors, he was invited to perform for the Dalai Lama, for Pir Zia Iniyat Khan (Head of the Sufi International Order), and has produced albums of Turkish master-musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek.

Yuval (pictured above) acts as the musical director and oud player for the Yuval Ron Ensemble, which includes Arabic, Jewish and Christian artists who unite the sacred music traditions of Judaism, Sufism and the Armenian Church into an unusual mystical, spiritual and inspiring musical celebration.


The concert was well attended and generally well received. However, the change to daylight saving did cause a number of patrons to arrive late.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Dervishes whirl the Fez Festival

Day three of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music was another delight. The afternoon concert of Mugham music from Azerbaijan was an emotional experience as much as a musical one. The vocals from trio leader, Zabit Nabizadde, were a fine exhibition of technical and improvisational virtuosity.

Khayyam Mamadov performing on the kamantaché

The music demonstrates a blend of influences: Caucasian, Persian and Turkish and the performance was the perfect entrée to the evening that was to follow. Rovsgen Gurbanov on tar (lute) and Khayyam Mammadov on the kamantaché fiddle were inspirational.



However the day belonged to the whirling dervishes. Since the Festival programme was announced the most talked about event was the programming of traditional Turkish Dervish with contemporary dance.



The first part of the evening was a masterful performance by the Mevlevi/ Konya Sufi Brotherhood. The traditional Sama or mystical dance was accompanied by a range of instruments including a superb ney ( flute) player. The music of the Samaa is almost seductive and the effect on the audience was immediate and positive.



Unfortunately, the technical change over between acts, which should have been easily accomplished, took a very long time. The waiting was the only blemish on a marvellous night and after what felt like an interminable time resulted in the crowd resorting to a slow clap to encourage a little progress.

Ziya Azazi

While the dance component of the second half did not please some in the audience, for those who appreciate the Sufi roots of the work by Ziya Azazi, it was a treat worth waiting for. The modern approach took many forms - from computer sampling to a series of variations on the dervish whirling.



Ziya's most theatrical moment was his almost magical transformation of one of his whirling skirts into a shimmering circle above his head.

Su Gunes Mihladiz

Later in the performance he was joined by Su Gunes Mihladiz whose initial dance was high energy and pure contemporary. However when Ziya returned to the stage after a short break, he lifted Mihladiz and twirled with her above his head for a long time in a truly gymnastic display that was erotic and sensual.



Our final word today goes to our Social and Fashion Editor, Dominique Nicebites:

Well, talk about a rush to buy silver outfits. The tone set by the first night glitterati has caught on big time and there was more silver on display than any night so far. Silver bags, shoes, socks ( yes, dears I saw silver socks - sockettes actually) and silver skirts, frocks and tops. Silver accessories were awesome... oh dear I have to go shopping.

Hi Ho Silver!

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news