Music at the World Junction presents: Justin Adams & Mohamed Errebbaa
Headfirst Editor’s pick: ‘Worlds collide…crafting winding polyrhythms charged with the healing trance of sufi mysticism’
It’s a great privilege to present Justin Adams & Mohamed Errebbaa at the Crofters Rights for a very special newly expanded quartet line up.
Full of dancing rhythms and uplifting, hypnotic grooves for an early summer’s evening. Mohamed & Justin have performed internationally & across many festival stages including celebrated sets at WOMAD & Shambala.
They draw on the deep trance power of the Gnawa & desert blues repertoire to present a polyrhythmic, bass-heavy, majestic set of traditional & original material.
Not to be missed! The night will be raising money for Bristol Refugee Festival and the Dovetail Orchestra.
More info:
Justin Adams needs little introduction: he was Robert Plant’s sideman on lead guitar from the early 2000’s. However, it is his well-travelled musical experiences from the early days of Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart to holding the producer anchor for groups such as Tinariwen, Rachid Taha & LoJo, as well as releasing three brilliant albums as dynamic duo JUJU with Gambian griot Juldeh Camera alongside his recent award-winning duo with Southern Italian traditional music maestro Mauro Durante, that make this so exciting.
Mohamed Errebbaa is a Moroccan Gnawa master musician, a highly regarded and unique practitioner of this tradition active in the UK. Born in Rabat, Morocco, Mohamed began performing with traditional Sufi brotherhoods from the age of ten and later spent a decade travelling throughout the country, studying with Gnawa masters and drawing on rich regional musical traditions. He plays the three-stringed Gnawa bass lute, the Guembri, and he himself received the title of Maalem (master of the Gnawa tradition) at the age of 26, making him one of the youngest masters.
Mohamed & Justin have performed internationally & across many festival stages including celebrated sets at WOMAD & Shambala. They draw on the deep trance power of the Gnawa & desert blues repertoire to present a polyrhythmic, bass-heavy, majestic set of traditional & original material.
The new quartet features the wonderful Omar El Barkaoui from Algeria on drums, who has a rich collaborative experience, playing with the likes of Moroccan guembri Maaelm Hamid El Kasri & saxophonist Soweto Kinch as well as percussionists Karim Ziad & Antari Mustapha. Chloe Rose Laing of Tagna Groove & Vital Beats completes the group with her soulful, uplifting voice & Moroccan percussion.
Their last Bristol show sold out the Jam Jar – so be sure to get your tickets for this intimate fundraising occasion.
Support comes from Moussa Kouyate (kora) & David Mowat (trumpet): ‘The sound of the kora by night goes far’
Affectionately known as The Bristol Griot, Moussa Koyate is from Senegal and continues an ancestral line going back centuries to the time of the Manding Empire: a line of musicians, teachers and oral historians known as griots. Many in Bristol will know Moussa as a street busker, a master musician, seated on the port side threshold of Pero’s Bridge spanning St Augustine’s Reach in Bristol Harbour.
Moussa has been playing the kora since the early 1970s when he began crafting them & performing at weddings & other community gatherings. He arrived in the South West of England in 1999 and has played Edinburgh festival, WOMAD & Glastonbury as well as his many days playing on the streets of Bristol. He is a storyteller in the griot tradition, drawing people together, holding the memories of his family, his life & the weight of exile present in anyone that has travelled far from home & family. Moussa draws people together with ‘every song, a love song to my mother’.
In a duo with Moussa’s trusted long time friend, the jazz trumpeter David Mowat, notes drift and weave amongst each other in conversation. A musical understanding of reflection, close listening & musical wandering that recalls the masterful collaboration of fellow kora & trumpet duo Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetez.
Moussa is open in describing a precarious balance with no official settled place to live and after a run of poor health he has seen his livelihood compromised. Despite COVID lockdowns he managed to record an album with a number of Bristol musicians, titled ’Tumultuous Journey’ that will be available to buy on the night. Moussa has shown great resilience over his many years in Bristol and it is a precious thing that we can be an audience to his & David’s playing this evening.
It is a great pleasure to welcome such sensitive musicianship to open tonight’s fundraiser.
A dancing night in celebration of global music with all proceeds going directly towards the artist costs for Bristol Refugee Festival’s free Celebrating Sanctuary Day & the running costs of Dovetail Orchestra, a music group for refugees and people seeking asylum in Bristol.
Tickets: www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/crofters-rights/mon-3-jun-justin-adams-mohamed-errebbaa-w-kouyate-mowat-108497#e108497