BAB L’BLUZ (Morocco | France)
BAB L’BLUZ
from Morocco and France
Hypnotic gnawa loops combine with an infectious groove played on traditional instruments like awicha and gimbri. Moroccan chaabi is spiced up with the clanging percussion of qaraqab (metal castanets), while the driving drumming is complemented by an amped-up 21st century psych groove. Formed in 2018 in Marrakech by vocalist Yousra Mansour and French guitarist Brice Bottin, Bab L’ Bluz combine a variety of influences in their music. In 2021 they won with their debut album Nayda! (Real World Records) won the Songlines Music Award in the Fusion category. In Morocco, Yousra Mansour and Bab L’Bluz stand for the Nayda – a young movement of artists and musicians that has brought about a veritable cultural revolution in recent years. With an electrifying stage presence, Mansour texts and sings her hymns to freedom in “Darija,” an Arabic dialect. When she and Botin go all out with their electrical amplified gimbris, while the percussion alternates with the flute to drive the duo to exhaustion, Bab L’Bluz present themselves at the height of their art and sweep the audience away into new musical worlds.
With Yousra Mansour (Vocals, Awisha, Percussion, Guembri), Brice Bottin (Guembri, Guitar, Percussion, Vocals), Moulay Brahim Terkemani (Drums, Vocals) and Mehdi Yachou (Flute, Percussion, Vocals).