DESCRIPTION:
El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music Present

Zar Gnawa

This musical collaboration between Moroccan Gnawa and Sudanese zār takes place for the first time in Egypt.If you go to the Moroccan city Essaouira to attend the Gnawa Music Festival and if you attend a Sudanese zār in Cairo, you will immediately realize the connection between the music of the Gnawa and Sudanese zār. Not only do they both use the pentatonic scale,they also share the themes and associated rituals that focus on spiritual healing and their suffering from slavery. The main instrument of Gnawa is the Gembri instrument, a three-stringed, skin covered lute played in this project by El Ma'alem Reda Zine, while that of the Sudanese zār is the Tanbura instrument, a large version of the simsimia, played by Hassan Bergamon. Other traditional instruments, such as the Kerkabo (a percussion instrument of Gnawa music), the Tuza and the Mangour, the percussion instruments of zār rituals.Mohsen El Ashry, a member of El Tanbura group, who has gained international repute, playing the simsimia instrument in this project.

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