Noura Mint Seymali to Perform at Trance Festival in New York

Mauritanian artist Noura Mint Seymali is set to perform on Thursday, April 30 at A World In Trance Festival in New York City.

Noura Mint Seymali is heir to a Mauritanian iggawin (griot) lineage stretching back for countless generations. Her stepmother Dimi Mint Abba was one of Mauritania’s most famous musicians and a major figure in bringing Mauritanian music to international audiences.

As the daughter of the late Seymali Ould Mouhamed Val, a revered scholar-musician credited as the first person to apply written notation to folk music in Mauritania, Noura is a true tradition bearer maintaining an ancient art and adding her personal signature.

Her hypnotic grooves meld traditional Mauritanian instruments, like the ardin (harp) and tidinit (skin-faced lute), within an electrified psychedelic rock band. She is accompanied by her husband, guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighaly; bassist Ousmane Touré; and Senegalese drummer/producer Matthew Tinari. Her critically acclaimed CD Tzenni is named after a whirling dance performed to the music of Moorish griots.

The opening act, Fula Flute features Bailo Bah and Sylvain Leroux. Bailo Bah is a master of the tambin, an end-blown three-holed flute used by the Fulani people for several rituals. He grew up in a traditional village in the heart of the Fulani land in the Futa Djalon mountains of Guinea. He was a soloist for 22 years with the Ballets Koteba of Abidjan and toured internationally with Africa Oye.

Sylvain Leroux was born in Montreal and studied classical flute and jazz. He learned to play the tambin in Guinea. He has collaborated for many years with West African musicians, and formed Fula Flute with Bailo Bah. He is acknowledged as one of the few Westerners to have mastered this instrument.

Together these two musicians perform a hypnotic duet combining voice and flute with a rhythmic intensity that brings to mind the harmonica of Sonny Terry’s “Whoopin’ the Blues.”

Time: 20:00 (8:00pm)
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave at 3rd Ave near BAM & Barclays Center, Downtown Brooklyn
Tickets to: $30; students, seniors $25
Special festival pass to all events: $95
Tickets: roulette.org, 917-267-0363

More at http://aworldintrance.com