Saturday 28 July 2007

Band of Gnawa with Louis Bertignac at Essaouira 2007 الصويرة

Another posting about the 10th Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival in June 2007.
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One of the other Musical Creations this year was put together by Loy Erlich who has been one of the Essaouira Artistic Directors since 2000. Loy Elich (keyboards bass France) joined the Band of Gnawa with Louis Bertignac (guitar France), Jean-Philippe Rykiel (guitar France), Akram Sedkaoui (vocals Tunisia), Cyril Atef (drums percussion) and Maalem Said Boulhimas (gimbri Morroco) along with four other Gnaoua musicians (choers percussion).

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The band started with Maalem Said Boulhimas and his Gnaoua musicians - I've just found about 20 minutes of him leading the whole group which I'd forgotten that I'd recorded - I'll post this to YouTube as soon as I can and then embed it here. The band then switches to more of a rock session, with the old Beatles number Come Together moving on through Hendrix's Who Knows to end on Gallow's Pole, they enchanted the crowd with rich rock fused with Gnaoua. Maggie and I agree that this was the session of the festival. Thanks guys!


Location and timing: Place Moulay Hassan Thursday 21st June 23:00

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This is the first of the two Maalem Said Boulhimas pieces (6:57):



.., and this is the second (9:44)



Here's Part 1 (9:22) of Come Together:



And here's part 2 (5:13, not 9:57 as shown. Sorry about the dead space at the end):



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Since I mentioned it, and Hendrix was probably my favourite musician when I first went to Essaouira in 1972, here's "Who Knows" (9:57):



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The old Led Zeppelin number Immigrant Song. Listen for the break to Gnaoua around the 3 minute mark.



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Finally, here's Gallow's Pole (5:59):



I recorded this set from the balcony of the Restaurant Bab Lachour, clamping the mike to the balustrade. It's a great place to see the concerts in Place Moulay Hassan and one of the few places in the medina to serve alchohol. You need to buy a ticket on the nights of the festival but that includes food which is always good there - the lamb chops and little baby soles are especially good.

Thanks to e - C h i l l . . aka.. SuperUnknown.. for the great photographs.

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