What: Boston-based, Moroccan-influenced dub-jazz collective Club d’Elf celebrates the release of Live At Club Helsinki.
When: Friday, January 20, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25/20 Online $20/15 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door
Brooklyn, NY – Boston-based, Moroccan-dosed dub-jazz collective Club d’Elf celebrates the release of Live At Club Helsinki, an epic double album that expands the band’s mix of avant jazz, electronica, hip hop, psychedelia, dub and Moroccan trance. Featuring John Medeski, the music explores touchstones as disparate as John Cage, Studio One, Gnawa, and drum n’ bass. Joining the band for this show are special guests Hassan Hakmoun and Mat Maneri, who add elements of Moroccan folk music and microtonal free jazz to the mix.
Orbiting around permanent members Mike Rivard (bassist + composer) and Dean Johnston (drummer), each Club d’Elf performance features a different line-up drawing from creative improvisers from the jazz, DJ, rock, and world music scenes of Boston and New York City. The band owes its Moroccan trance influences to core member Brahim Fribgane, who hails from Casablanca. Informed as much by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s ideas of shifting reality and parallel universes as by Miles Davis & Fela Kuti, the band draws inspiration from many sources, including the avant comedy of Firesign Theater and Mr. Show. Guitars, turntables, Fender Rhodes, laptops, horns, tablas and all manner of exotic instruments flow in and out of the mix. Derived from ancient sources, trance forms the central core of the Club d’Elf aesthetic, unifying the various genres the band has absorbed.