Gnawa Jazz Trio

Karim Ziad, Mehdi Nassouli & Omri Mor

Mehdi Nassouli grew up immersed in Morocco’s Gnawa culture. A prodigious musical talent, he learned to play a wide range of instruments at an early age, becoming especially passionate about the three-stringed plucked lute, the Guembri. Karim Ziad, whom his friends fondly call the Little Prince, plays, in addition to diverse percussion instruments, guitar and gumbri (a Moroccan bass lute) and sings. With his music Ziad wants to bring people closer together, especially the people of East and West. And so it is a crackling and tension-filled musical mixture that awaits you on this new shiny silver disc: the sounds of the traditional music of North Africa – the Maghreb – flow into a more than simply productive fusion of jazz and electronic sounds. “When pianit Omri Mor starts using keys and strings to emulate a gimbri, or similar, you really know you’re in the presence of some new kind of genius.” His musical prowess ranges from Classical and Jazz to Arabo-andalusian music. As of today, he tours frequently with Bassist Avishai Cohen’s trio, and has recently released his debut album, “It’s About Time!”