Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BarzakhFestival
Most recents (5)
Starting #BarzakhFestival day with a workshop on Afro-Cuban music with @ladameblanche13. She talks about her father, musical director of @BuenaVistaSC, her early plans to be a classical flutist (but had no instrument of her own) 
She became a young mother, and moved to France where she connected with her producer. It would have been easy for her to sing old standards like Besame Mucho
But they didn’t speak to her. So she started writing her own songs. She worked for a long time with Sargeant Garcia. Recorded this song.
Part 1 of our inside view Off the Stage: @altingunband talk about their influences. Turkish folk Pink Floyd, Thai psychedelia, Afrobeat (including @RealSeunKuti). All their songs start with fold songs of vocals + sax #BarzakhFestival
And now @altingunband are professing their love for their sound engineer Jasper and one another. They play all their music analog. @almoharek’s @BasemAbuarab praises how true to their sound they are.
Most of @altingunband’s fans in Holland are young people their own age, much younger than the age of their songs. In Turkey, they get older fans who know all the original songs they do. Many of those traveled to Jordan, Egypt too.
Lekhfa’s @MauriceLouca and agent @BasemAbuarab visit Prof Corinne Stokes’ @NYUAbuDhabi class on Arab Popular Music. This week’s focus is on music of the 70’s.
The 60’s and 70’s were so influential in psychedelic music globally, comments @MauriceLouca, though were less influential in Egypt, as compared to Turkey or Beirut. But he shares an Umm Kulthoum track with electric guitar and keyboard. #BarzakhFestival
Listening to a piece by Umm Kulthoum, a student remarks on the powerful audience agreement that the intros can be 6-7 minutes long and a single piece an hour long. @MauriceLouca suggests that it’s better to think of it as an extended composition rather than a “song.”
We’re live-streaming an arts chat from @NYUAbuDhabi @NYUAD_CDC at with @RealSeunKuti @Alsarah5000 @altingunband and Basem, agent for Lekhfa, moderated by @TheNationalUAE’s @SaeedSquared Tune in. #BarzakhFestival
So far, it’s been a far-ranging conversation about modifying their sets for different audiences (don’t, say @RealSeunKuti and @Alsarah5000 - trust your material), the problem and importance of labels (artists define your own before someone does it for you) #BarzakhFestival
As a fan, I need to find a guide, says Basem Abuarab of @almoharek. He’s more open than some of the artists.
Seun Kuti, in advance of his performance at #BarzakhFestival tomorrow is visiting NYUAD classes.
Seun Kuti says that too much modern music infantilizes audiences, focusing on superficial ideas rather than higher consciousness.
A student asks whether Seun Kuti feels artists can be separated from their art. He doesn’t believe you can.
