This weekend-long celebration of global sounds mixes roots and modern and local.

The Maghreb meets West Africa in University of Gnawa’s intoxicating hybrid with unstoppable choruses and emotional flights of improvisation. Seymali’s hypnotic grooves meld traditional Mauritanian instruments with electrified psychedelic rock.

Aziz Sahmaoui brings together his musical passions — gnawa, rock and jazz— in a globe-trotting collaboration with high-flying Senegalese experimentalists. Led by composer, poet and guembri player Samhaoui, a co-founding member of the influential Orchestre National de Barbes (ONB) and alumnus of Joe Zawinul’s Syndicate, University of Gnawa brings together gnawa roots, unstoppable choruses and emotional flights of improvisation, supporting richly layered poetic lyrics. Aziz’s bewitching voice, adept at alternating between the inflections of a bluesman, a muezzin, and a crooner, pulls us inexorably into his poetic universe where any bitterness of the day to day melts away into a jubilatory energy.

Free Entry

Feb 16, 2017 07:30 PM

Venue

New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi