By Ahlam Ben Saga
Rabat – In his quest to make “new rhythm of the world,” Moroccan composer and saxophonist-turned-jazzman, Abdel Mabrouk will announce the release of his new music video in a press conference on March 23, in Marrakech.
In line with his debut album “Ahwach Jazz” released in 2017, Abdel Mabrouk, otherwise known as Abdel Sax, will present his new music video, filmed in January 2018, in Ouarzazate.
Sponsored by Marrakech audiovisual organization Saxo Prod, “La Palme D’or” restaurant, and the Ouarzazate tourism company Accord Sud Productions, the press conference will be organized in the restaurant, “Le Palme d’Or” at La Mamounia Hotel in the Marrakech medina on March 23.
The press conference will showcase the video in the presence of Director Hassan Mrani, Chief Operating Officer Aziz Lechgar, a traditional Ahwach dance group, and other artists, and VIP guests.
Mabrouk’s new music video is linked to his greater artistic project of the same name, which is dedicated to fusing the rhythms of jazz and the five-note pentatonic scale of the Moroccan traditional dance “Ahwach,” into the new musical genre Mabrouk named as “Ahwach-Jazz.”
Filmed by a drone in the environs of the southern Moroccan city Ouarzazate, Mabrouk’s video features the title track of his debut album, which contains songs released in 2017.
Musician, American lawyer, and Mabrouk’s manager, Elizabeth Myers discussed the artist’s music:
“Through this music, Abdel is sharing Morocco’s cultural heritage with the world; he is doing for Ahwach what others have done in the past for gnawa music,” she said. “And as a jazz singer, I am excited to explore the roots of jazz in Africa.”
Mabrouk’s album is the product of ten years of thorough research on the origins of jazz and Morocco’s musical heritage, obtained over the course of a “spiritual journey back to [his] roots.”
Born to a musician father, Mabrouk grew up in the home of Ahwach: Morocco’s “the door of the desert,” Ouarzazate.
By the age of 13, Mabrouk had already learned how to play the saxophone, piano, and flute, among other musical instruments.
Mabrouk followed his goal to become a professional musician to Marrakech where he lives now, he told Morocco World News in a previous interview on his Ahwach jazz debut in 2017.
Mabrouk had his very first concert in Belgium in 2007. Some of his other noteworthy performances include the Festival of Amazigh Culture in Fez in 2011, the 2012 Mawazine festival in Rabat, and his Ahwach debut concert in Marrakech in 2017.
He has also made covers of songs like “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele, John Legend’s “All of Me,” Alicia Keys’s “If I Ain’t Got You,” and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.”
Mabrouk shared his dream with MWN in an interview last year: “I want Moroccan heritage to become international. Like we hear blues in Morocco, we hear jazz, bossa nova, swing—one day I want to hear Ahwach, us too, in the United States, in England…That’s my dream. I want it to become international.”
