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Justin Adams & Juldeh Camarah

Justin Adams & Juldeh Camarah

Day Two: Friday 27/06/08

Click an image to enlarge.

UK bluesman Justin Adams understands better than most the strong links between African music, jazz & blues. His storming performance with West African Griot Juldeh Camarah tore up the main stage in Place Moulay Hassan just as the sun set over the sea. Adams - best known for his work with Robert Plant – first embarked on his mission to put the ‘Africanness’ back into the blues with his album “Desert Road” (2001). This was followed up by the collaboration with Juldeh Camarah, ‘Soul Science’ in 2007, which won the Radio 3 World Music award.

Wayne Shorter’s performance highlighted the fact that the real stars of this Festival are the Gnaoua. Shorter’s quartet delivered an accomplished, lyrical set, and received an enthusiastic response from the crowd, but when they were joined on stage by Maâlem Mohamed Kouyou & his Gnaoua group with Karim Ziad on drums, the crowd erupted into a frenzy. The Gnaouas continued to dominate the rest of the set with Danilo Perez delivering a faultless accompaniment to the Gnaoua beats.

I wandered round to the stage at Bab Marrakech, & discovered a combination of steel drums (Paris based American Andy Narell); electric guitar (Abdenour Djemaï from Algeria); violin (Hassan Idbassaid from Morocco) and percussion (Stephane Edouard; France / India) providing the accompaniment to the pounding Gnaoua rhythms of Maâlem Abderrahim Benthami. Andy Narell’s gentle steel drums sound as if they were made to be played with Gnaoua music.

Most of the invited musicians here had never played together before, and many have never played with the Gnaoua, but clearly a huge amount of thought had gone into deciding which musicians would play with each other during the Festival. One of the most noticeable points about these musicians is their intuitive ability to adapt their musical style and blend with the Gnaoua rhythms, and with each other. Abdenour Djemaï observes:

“It’s all about listening; you can be the best musician in the world, but if you cannot listen then you can never play with anyone else…”

© Alice Mutasa

Juldeh Camarah

Juldeh Camarah

Wayne Shorter Quartet

Wayne Shorter Quartet with Maâlem Mohamed Kouyou & his Gnaoua  group

Maâlem Mohamed Kouyou

Maâlem Mohamed Hayat


Recommended
Viewing

Click Justin Fermin-Juarez's image to go to the Festival Gnaoua. Day 1...
Click Bassekou Kouyate's image to go to the Festival Gnaoua. Day 3 & 4...
Click Justin Adams' image to view his photographs @ the Royal Festval Hall in 2007...
Click Wayne Shorter's image to view photographs of the Wayne Shorter Quartet at the Barbican...

Fermin Juarez @ Festival Gnaoua. Day 2 (click to go to this page) Bassekou Kouyate @ Festival Gnaoua. Day 3 & 4 (click to go to this page) Justin Adams @ the Royal Festival Hall 2007 (Click to go to his page) Wayne Shorter Quartet @ the Barbican  (click to go to this page)

Go back to the Festival Gnaoua Introduction.

Go back to the soul gallery.

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