Date: March 27th, 2012
Venue: Zebulon (Brooklyn, NY)
Concert review by Jim Hoey
Zebulon, on Saturday night, was jumping with the sounds of Moroccan Gnawa music, a mix of Arabic, Sufi, and Sub-Saharan Berber mysticism. The band, Nass Gwana, performed three sets for the night, featuring the 3-stringed sintar (desert bass/guitar), which was shared by two of their players, and lots of droning kalabash (castanets), and vocals by almost all of their members.
Hassan Ben Jaafar, one of the lead singers and sintar players who’s been playing around NYC since 1998, shared the sintar with Said Damir who also jumped up from time to time and, with his tassel spinning around on his fez hat in time to the music, danced around and got the audience up on their feet for a few dances. Joined by Brahim Fribgane on oud and cajon. The music, as you’ll hear in the video, is raw and exciting in tone, with all the acoustic instruments pulsing together as a perfect base for the chanting, by-light-of-the-desert-fire, vocals.
Joined by the wonderful Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo for the second set, these musicians had the place caught up and lifted away, enchanted by a mix of sounds as foreign to NYC as can be, but infinitely welcome. She transfixed all of those in the space with deep, guttural, vocals, that rose from a deep drone up to higher pitched notes, all while seated at the fore of the stage in a simple white dress, her long black hair spreading over both shoulders down to her waist. This collaboration, between a Tibetan and Moroccan group of musicians, is unique, and demonstrated the respect between those of two different cultures, which allowed them to come together in music and make this night exceptional.
