Eftekasat
(World jazz)
Winner of the Culture Resource Award 2005
Winner of The Arab fund for Arts and Culture award 2009
Eftekasat Jazz Group was established in late 2001 and gave its debut performance in February 2002 at the Cairo Jazz Club Festival. The show was acclaimed as unique and original.
Eftekasat is one of very few Egyptian independent music groups that have managed to establish themselves on the scene in such little time. Their original compositions can be classified as oriental jazz/fusion/jazz rock and sometimes world music, insofar as they attempt to find a new, unorthodox dimension for oriental musical themes through fusion with other musical styles, such as jazz, rock, and Latin.
The Music of EFTEKASAT is best described by The Herald Tribune as it says: "Nonetheless, EFTEKASAT (which translates roughly as "new inventions") have made an engaging album filled with a variety of textures and moods, and the record's production values are slick and polished.
Mouled Sidi El-Latini (the Latin dervish)
Mouled Sidi El-Latini (The Latin dervish) is the title of Eftekasat Jazz group's first album, which received an award in 2006 from the Culture Resource. "The Latin Dervish" is considered the first Joint Musical production between an Egyptian Jazz band and an American producer "Darryl John Kennedy" (Multi instrumentalist, Composer and Producer) in an attempt to build bridges of trust through Culture, and Music. Nevertheless EFTEKASAT have shared stage performing together with the 2 times Grammy awarded Hip Hop, Funk Latin band "OZOMATLI" during their Middle east tour 2007.
The album is listed under oriental and contemporary jazz, or sometimes jazz fusion. It is considered an attempt to find a new, original oriental sound through fusion with other music styles, such as jazz and rock.
The story of Mouled Sidi El-Latini is a fantasy scene of a celebration that takes place somewhere in Latin America, with all its artistic specificities, such as musical phrases and rhythms. As this celebration goes on, an Arabic Mouled is introduced to coincide with the first one until the two carnivals fuse together to become one big celebration of mixed cultures and languages and musical styles. This Mouled conveys a message to humanity: in spite of all the different languages, civilizations and sects, we can still communicate and live in harmony through art and culture.
Eftekasat launched their second album 'Dandasha' in May 2010
Eftekasat has participated in numerous major cultural events, locally and internationally, such as:
-Modern Folk Musik Festival - Cairo, Egypt 2002
-Cairo Jazz club festival 2002
-Mangroovy art festival - Sharm el Sheikh 2004
-Fete de La Musique - Cairo, Egypt 2003, 2005
-The Independent Egyptian Groups Music Festivals - Alexandria, Egypt 2004
-Bansko International 4th Jazz Festival - Bansko, Bulgaria 2004
-OZOMATLI middle east tour - Cairo, Alexandria 2007
-Carthage Jazz festival - Tunis 2008
-S.O.S music festival - Cairo 2006, 2007, 2008
-Nisville Jazz festival-Serbia
-Bansko 11th Jazz festival-Bulgaria
-San Jose 19th Jazz festival-U.S.A 2008
-Festival of Jordan - Jordan 2009
-PANAF - Algeria 2009
-Cairo Jazz Festival - Egypt 2010
*Eftekasat is a slang word that means innovative ideas.
