A 4-day festival called A World In Trance will present some of the finest trance music of Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Tuva and the United States.
The event begins on Thursday, April 30th with thrilling Mauritanian desert blues with Noura Mint Seymali, the heir to a griot (oral historian and praise singer) ancestral tradition whose unforgettable voice has been gathering worldwide attention in recent years.
Opening for Noura Mint is Fula Flute, composed of master musicians Bailo Bah and Sylvain Leroux performing hypnotic Fulani music of Guinea.
Friday, May 1st includes Pakistan’s distinguished Farid Ayaz, Abu Muhammad & Brothers Qawwal performing qawwali, the ecstatic improvisational Sufi vocal tradition made famous in the West by the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Hassan Hakmoun, the leading exponent of Moroccan Gnawa trance music in the United States and a leading artist in world music circles, performs excerpts from Gnawa trance ceremonies – a spellbinding blend of North African and Arab melodies with West African rhythms – on Saturday, May 2.
The festival comes to an end on Sunday, May 3 featuring Alash, masters of “otherworldly” throat singing from the Siberian Republic of Tuva. The program will open with a stunning collaboration between virtuoso musicians Ned Rothenberg (reeds) and Glen Velez (frame drums) performing a new work.
Since earliest times music and dance have played a major role in uniting people through ritual, often seeking union with the divine through trance or ecstasy. This festival aims to bring back some spiritual nourishment to our lives; to focus our physical and mental selves.
Thurs Apr 30, 2015 at 8pm
NOURA MINT SEYMALI – Desert Blues from Mauritania
FULA FLUTE: Bailo Bah & Sylvain Leroux – Fulani music of Guinea
Fri May 1, 2015 at 8pm
FARID AYAZ, ABU MUHAMMAD & BROTHERS QAWWAL
Sufi Music of Pakistan
+ 7pm pre-concert talk on Sufi music and texts in India and Pakistan
Sat May 2, 2015 at 8pm
HASSAN HAKMOUN, Gnawa Soul of Morocco
+ 6:30pm talk with Dr. Philip Schuyler on trance music in Morocco
+10pm Marrakech dance party with DJ
Sun May 3, 2015 at 7pm
ALASH, masters of Tuvan throat singing
NED ROTHENBERG & GLEN VELEZ
+ 6pm pre-concert talk on overtone singing in Tuva with Sean Quirk
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave at 3rd Ave near BAM & Barclays Center, Downtown Brooklyn
Tickets to Apr 30, May 2 & May 3: $30; students, seniors $25
Tickets to May 1: $35; students, seniors $30
Special festival pass to all events: $95
Tickets: roulette.org, 917-267-0363
More at http://aworldintrance.com
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
