Get ready to get in the groove as this Moroccan dosed psychedelic dub jazz collective brings their mesmerizing synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk to the Meadow!
ABOUT CLUB d’ELF
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Club d'Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time for almost twenty seven years with its Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk. Circling about bassist/composer Mike Rivard, each Club d'Elf performance features a different line-up, drawn from a constellation of some of the most creative improvisers from the jazz, DJ, rock & world music scenes of Boston, NYC and beyond. Named Jazz Act of 2023 in the Boston Music Awards, the bands music draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles that goes beyond any single category, including hip hop, electronica, avant garde, prog-rock and dub. Under the tutelage of member Brahim Fribgane (who was born in Casablanca) the band absorbed Moroccan trance music, which is now an essential part of the mix. Fribgane passed away in early 2024, but his spirit lives on in the music, particularly in Rivard’s commanding playing of the Moroccan sintir - an instrument he learned to play through the guidance of Fribgane, as well as Gnawa masters Hassan Hakmoun and Mahmoud Guinia. Trance forms the central core of the Club d’Elf aesthetic, weaving together the band’s various influences.
The bands most recent album, 'You Never Know' (2022), garnered critical acclaim and rose to #2 on the Relix chart. The record unfurls upon kaleidoscopic clouds of spiced smoke, shifting from chopped dub-jazz through trance epics that reimagine Boston as a city of bazaars. Club d'Elf pay tribute to the music and musicians who have been primary influences, with half the album being covers of Gnawa, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Moroccan band Nass el-Ghiwane, and Frank Zappa. The other half consists of original music inspired by Rivard's personal journey into darkness following a near death experience in the remote jungle of the Peruvian Amazon. Sessions for a new album began in January 2024, with a release date of Summer 2025 expected.
"You Never Know is a wide ranging romp, full of serenity, chaos, longing, improvisation and peerless musicianship inspired by music from India and Morocco as well as the maverick jazz of Miles Davis and Frank Zappa." - Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide
“Crushed between the borders of Morocco, jam band land and the kingdom of avant-garde jazz lies Club d’Elf...James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.” – Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald
“Sounds like the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh...some deeply psychedelic music.” – Marlon Bishop, WNYC