Thursday 26 June 2008

Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival - 2008 line-up



Festival dates: Thursday June 26 to Sunday June 29

Updated: At last, the line-up has been posted for the 2008 Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival, and now (20 June) there is a detailed program that's nicely colour-coded to show musical genre, along with the lists of the artists and biographies. Also (18 June), some of the artist listings show the venue, day and time, so you can now plan your festival.

Note that you need to access the site using the French entry point if you want to see the musicians - the English side of the site is still pretty sparsely populated. I've added hyperlinks to the section headings below, so you can easily read more details about the artists. Links to the original French are shown in italics, English translations (courtesy of Google Translate) are shown in normal type.

I've added some links for some of the artists to their web-sites or Myspace profiles, so that you listen to their music, before the event, to help you to determine which sets you should attend.


Artistes World
/ International musicians

Franck Vaillant (Drums)
Jaleel Shaw (AltoSax) USA
Mohamed Derouich (Guitar) France / Morocco
Stéphane Edouard (Percussion) - India
Hassan Idbadssaïd (Vocals / banjo / guitar / Rebab / violin)
Abdenour Djemaï (Multi instrumentalist strings) France and Algeria
Andy Narell (Steel drums) NY
Jon Balcke Norway (Piano / keyboards)
Ibrahim Maalouf (Trumpet / Lebanon)
Fermin Juarez and Nelson Javier Silva (Argentina)

Groupes Etrangers / Foreign groups

Eric Légnini Trio - Belgium
Le Trio Joubran , Samir Joubran, Wissam Joubran, Adnan Joubran, Yousef Hbeisch
3 MA
Justin Adams - UK with Juldeh Camara - The Gambia
Groupe Bassekou Kouyaté
Toumani Diabaté - Mali (Kora)
Diwane El Kasbah - Algeria
Wayne Shorter quartet - USA
Ky-Mani Marley - Jamaica
Orchestre National de Barbes - Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia
Samulnori Molgae - Korea

Groupes Marocains / Moroccan groups
Groupe Darhem
Groupe Berbère Raiss Said OUTAJJAJT et Raissa JAMILA TAMINTAGHT
Groupe Paco Ghiwane
Groupe Wachmin’hit
Hmadcha
Ganga
(Smimou)
Haddarates
Issaoua de Meknès
Groupe bana de Marrakech
Kif Samba

Groupes Gnaoua / Gnaoua groups
Maâlem Hamid El Kasri
Maâlem Mustapha Bakbou
Maâlem Mohamed Kouyou
Maâlem Abderrahim Benthami
Maâlem Omar Hayat
Maâlem Abdelkébir Merchane
Maâlem Mahmoud Guinea
Maâlem Abdellah Guinéa
Maâlem Abdenbi El Gadari
Maâlem Allal Soudani
Maâlem Abdeslam Alikane, Tyour Gnaoua
Maâlem Mahjoub Laghnaoui
Maâlem Abdelwahad Stitou
Maâlem Abdeslam Belghiti
Maâlem Saïd Boulhimas
Maâlem Mustapha Gholf
Maâlem Mustapha Hagbel
Maâlem Adil Amimi
Maâlem Najib Gbani
Maâlem Rachid Fadli Ladhass
Maâlem Abdelkader Amlil
Maâlem Saïd El Bourqui
Groupe Baâlil
Maâlem Ahmed Bakbou
Maâlem Chérif Regragui
Maâlem Lahcen Demnati


There will be a number of changes this year with a new performance area (scene): Bab Doukala for the traditional Gnaoua - which will undoubtedly be where Joseph Sebag will spend most of his time.

There was also talk on the festival site about a new venue - Bab Sba, which looked like it would replace Bab Marrakech, but now it looks like that's not going to happen. To read my wife's view on that proposed change of venue, link to Maggie Knutson: Gnaoua and World Music Festival, Essaouira, Morocco June 26-29, 2008

Saturday 14 June 2008

Hold Fire at The Railway Inn, Winchester


I went along to the Railway Inn in Winchester last night to record Hold Fire, a band from Brighton who've been playing togather since 2002. They played a short but powerful 30 minute set and really got the beach party rocking. Super job, guys.

Let's start with their second number:




Here's the finale:




You can find more music by Hold Fire on YouTube and MySpace