The jazz notes of the argan tree

With around ten concerts, 3 jam sessions after midnight and 2 souirie-style forums in the mornings, this 2024 vintage, signed by maestro Majid Bekkas, director of “Jazz under the argan tree”, will take us on a journey to Africa, Europe, Morocco, Asia and as far as Australia. Over the course of these 3 days and evenings marked with the seal of exception and excellence, Essaouira will welcome, among other guest stars, Cheick Tidiane Seck, one of the greatest figures in Malian music.

Traveling companion of Hank Jones, Salif Keita and Wayne Shorter, nominated 4 times for the Grammy Awards and an outstanding improviser, Cheikh will continue in Essaouira to nourish jazz and blues with his irreplaceable Mandingo luxuriances. Before him, around the great guitarist Nguyen Lee, the trio “Saiyuki” will offer us a “chronicle of the journey to the west”, listening to subtle and inspired jazz. East Asia exchanges with the West, and Japan, played by the magnificent Mieko Miyazaki on koto, flirts with India by virtuoso Prabhu Edouard on tablas. This concert by the Saiyuki trio, unprecedented in every respect, will offer Essaouira a beyond-Asia where virtuosity breaks musical boundaries.

Another highlight of this edition: the concert by Jullian Belbachir, an Australian-Moroccan drummer converted to the ngoni lute, a cousin instrument of the Malian kora. Jullian fell in love with Essaouira, where he took up residence, mirroring and echoing the Gnawa grooves associated with Brazilian and Cuban reminiscences and a good dose of Mandinka strings.

Tribute to Randy Weston

Other revelations of this edition: the “Jazzin Trio” with Abdel Wahab on piano, Luis Chico Salto on double bass and Robin des Bois on drums for a mixture of classic Jazz and more contemporary Jazz fusion. While Aly Keita, master of the balafon, the African xylophone who carries the torch of the most subtle Afro-jazz, will revisit the most emblematic pieces of his career alongside Pharoah Sanders or Omar Sosa.

Closer to us, the lutenist Alaa Zouiten, based in Berlin, has always dreamed of bringing together the music of his Moroccan-Andalusian roots with those of puro flamenco. In Essaouira, he will be accompanied by Naoufal Montasserre on guitar and Antonio Moreno on cajon. Last but not least, and without forgetting the after-midnight jam sessions, unlike any other, this extraordinary edition will close in apotheosis with a tribute to the African-American pianist Randy Weston.

A tribute which will be orchestrated by the Grand Baobab of Malian music, Cheick Tidiane Seck, with the best of his musician friends around him to celebrate the Jazz icon who gave the most to the African roots of Jazz and the centrality of heritage and Gnaoui repertoire in this roots at home in Essaouira.