Boulila Gnawa-rock with Mourad Kebali

Gnawa. Ritual, music, dance. This artistic form of expression, inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, stems from a distant and mystical cultural memory rooted in sub-Saharan Africa. Boulila’s music is strongly grounded in tradition, carried by the low vibrations of the guembri’s strings and the clinking of the krakebs, and is amplified by intoxicating repetition and the ferment of a liberating trance. Winners of the 2021 Syli d’or de la musique du monde, the group revisits the conventions of this festive and therapeutic musical genre with instrumentation that combines guitar, saxophone, bass, piano and drums, exposing the African roots of popular Western music.

The versatility of Moroccan rhythms will be the focus of these three star-studded evenings, as Boulila jams with three emissaries from the Montreal scene.

Gnawa-rock evening | with Mourad Kebali: Looking like a rock veteran who’s seen it all before, Mourad Kebali creates a haunting blues-rock sound, punctuated by vibratos and long, distorted guitar chords that Santana wouldn’t disavow. An invitation to close your eyes and let yourself be carried away by the music, beating out the tempo.