Thirteen years ago during the traditional Sunday market in Columbia Road a London-based ensemble amazed the passers-by with their lively and up-tempo klezmer music. Today She’Koyokh’s busking days are over and the band is finally considered one of London’s musical gems. We seized the chance during their Rich Mix gig,...
All posts by Marco Canepari
Within few minutes of the doorman closing the doors Bishopsgate Institute was transported to the main square of the small Hungarian town of Szentendre during the annual Festival. The main event’s star performers were three brothers, Áron, Benjamin and Dávid Eredics, one of their cousins Salamon Eredics and one of...
“I’m trying to bring gnawa music to this country. I’m trying to let people know what this music is all about.” Few musicians have dedicated their life and career to one musical style as Simo Lagnawi is doing with gnawa, the traditional Moroccan music that was originally carried to North...
You just need three words to describe a Pascuala Ilabaca’s gig: alegría de vivir. The joy of life that infects you when you listen to her mellow voice, the fluctuating sound of her accordion and the full-flavoured accompaniment by her band Fauna is simply exhilarating. You just want to delve...
Without so much as an introduction Angelique Kidjo and her musicians walked out on stage and embraced their instruments. As Angelique intoned the first notes of ‘Ebile’ the band instinctively lit up the night. And why would she need to be introduced? After her thirty-year music career everyone recognizes the...
The Senegalese Amadou Diagne and the Italo-Sudanese Amira Kheir mirrored two different aspects of Africa and its music, but the audience was touched by the same artistic drive that invoked the invaluable cultural richness of the continent. On a hypothetical road trip you would have to drive 4,000 miles to...
We caught up with Nomad Collective during the shoot of their promo video last month to talk to them about their band With a crispy album just released and an oncoming “world” tour on the horizon, Nomad Collective is a name you are going to hear again and again and,...
We met Amira Kheir one week before her performance at the cross-cultural music Festival LIFEM and she brought some musical colour to the grey of a quintessential London Autumn day. Despite everyone insisting on referring to Amira Kheir as a diva she is miles away from that archetype. She is...
Rabindranath Tagore was the most important Bengali artist of the 19th and 20th centuries. He influenced and redefined not only Bengali literature and music, but also theatre and painting. Throughout the decades that bridged the two centuries he became a cultural and political guide for his country. To celebrate the...
After the grand finale with the audience dancing to the unrestrained rhythms of the desert, then after the standing ovation I finally decided to ask Bombino’s tour manager for the set-list. “I checked on stage but couldn’t find one” I said. “I know” he answered. “Bombino doesn’t usually write a...
What Colour Is Jazz? @ Chats Palace (London; Saturday 23rd February 2019)
Gipsydelica @ Hootananny (Sunday 24th February) - FREE ENTRY -