Boulila Gnawa Fusion with César Sanz

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 Fusion evening | with César Sanz: Since his beginnings at the age of 12, César Sanz has developed a drumming style nourished by jazz, blues, metal and fusion. Trained by masters in Argentina, he forged his style on the stages of La Plata, before returning to enrich his hometown alongside renowned artists such as Alambre González and Luis Robinson. In 2019, he moved to Playa del Carmen, where he became a mainstay of the local scene and of cultural festivals, notably that of Italian culture in Mexico. Now living in Montreal, he continues his musical explorations through vibrant collaborations, between anchorage and openness.