NEEDS.- The legendary American pianist Herbie Hancock, passing through Morocco to celebrate International Music Day. Jazz, sees in this genre a unifying point capable of promoting unity and diversity. In Tangier, designated by UNESCO as host city for Jazz Day 2024, he gave a concert last night that brought together other great names in contemporary jazz, also Americans, such as bassist Marcus Miller and the singer Dee Dee Bridgewater.
“The experiences of several people are expressed and shared when music is made in a group. This collective experience, this type of unity, is an integral part of the identity of jazz,” Hancock said in an interview with AFP.
“When people come to listen to us, they can feel the joy that we emanate. The public feels the experience that the musicians share. That’s why they fill the rooms, to be able to experience it,” added the artist, winner of 14 Grammy Awards.
“This means that we can set an example of what we should be, where we should be. Music says it all,” he continued.
For the 84-year-old artist, creator of the legendary album Head Huntersjazz allows us to recognize and promote diversity among people.
Artists from Chile, Cameroon, Brazil and Japan were also present on the stage of the Tangier Palace of Arts and Culture, as was the master of gnaoua (North African musical style), Abdel El Gurd, who opened the concert.
Magical influence on the concert
This musical genre, which mixes the sacred and the profane, is very popular in Morocco.
It is dotted with invocations and dances that can reach the point of trance. Initially developed by descendants of slaves, at least since the 16th century, it was inscribed in UNESCO’s intangible heritage in 2019.
The passage, between 1967 and 1972, of Randy Weston to Tangier – a port city that saw jazz gotha parade in the last century – marked both the history of the city and of this music.
Historical figure of music, friend and collaborator of Abdal El Gurd, Weston (died in 2018) managed to create avant-garde cultural bridges between jazz and gnaoua.
“He brought to the United States what he helped develop in Tangier and other cities in Morocco. Everyone appreciates the atmosphere that people know how to create here,” said Hancock, who discovered Gnaoua music on a previous visit to Morocco in 2015.
“The rhythm of the qraqebs (a type of castauelas) has a magical influence on your being,” he described.
The effect remains the same almost 10 years later. In Tangier, the first city on the African continent to host International Jazz Day, the pianist was able to attend a musical session with the malem (teacher) El Gurd.
“It was so deep that my eyes filled with tears,” summarized the author of the song. Rockitreleased in 1983.
FUENTE: AFP
