(via From the Sahara, Terakaft reinvent the blues tradition | StarTribune.com)
“…In the vanguard of this “desert blues” brigade is the band Terakaft, which will appear Monday at the Cedar Cultural Center. A core trio composed of friends and a former member of the better-known group Tinariwen, Terakaft — which means “caravan” is the Tamasheq language — deploys driving blues-rock riffs that fans of John Lee Hooker and Ali Farka Touré will recognize. But these phrases coalesce into ululating and circular rhythms that swirl into gusting, hypnotic patterns.
Terakaft, like Tinariwen, are nomadic Tuareg people from the region around northern Mali in the Sahara, so it is hard not to liken this evocative music to the ever-shifting sands and landscape of the desert…
The title track to the group’s fourth and latest album, “Kel Tamasheq” (which translates as “people who speak Tamasheq”), opens with a call for their people to stand up and not be invisible to the world. The lyrics over the braided guitars in “Imad Halan” (“The Volunteers”) seem to caution against involvement in the turmoil in Mali, while the closing acoustic blues tune “Bas Tela Takaraket” (“There Are No More Morals”) proclaims, according to one translation, “We will not submit / Nor will we make alliance with the enemy.”
As with all great blues-oriented music, you don’t have to know the language to feel the passion. On the opening track, “Tirera,” a halting guitar line quickly gathers steam and settles into an intoxicating canter, goaded by hand claps and vocal whoops. It’s a classic desert blues tune, reveling in the unbridled joy of the expanse, satisfying a yearning for freedom and independence that is as old as the hills.”
(via Terakaft | Vita.mn)
“Monday: Malian desert-rock trio travels to the Cedar
7:30 p.m. • Cedar Cultural Center • $25-$28
It doesn’t get much more real than Terakaft — a group of Tuareg musicians displaced from their lives in the tumultuous Azawad region of northern Mali. Their unique desert-blues rock is propelled by spiking electric guitars and Malian melodies, all accompanied by vocals as beautifully haunting as the Sahara from which they hail. Terakaft’s founding members were a part of the Grammy-winning Tinariwen, a similar group born out of the Tuareg rebellion of the ’80s and composed of soldier musicians. With more trouble in their homeland, these naturally nomadic men now travel with their music and, inextricably linked, the poignant story of a culture struggling for survival. Spencer Doar”
(via Terakaft | The Cedar Cultural Center)
Terakaft’s debut U.S. tour starts on Saturday: Catch them at The Cedar in Minneapolis on March 11:
Monday, March 11, 2013 - 7:30pm
Doors Open: 7:00pm
An evening of searing desert blues with Tuareg/Tamasheq band Terakaft (meaning “caravan” in Tamasheq). The stark, harsh conditions of the Sahara permeates their riffs, and the group embodies all that is wild and free in desert blues today. After forming as an offshot of TInariwen, Terakaft have taken the electric guitar and put their own mark on the music, music that serves as a rallying call for the youth of a country torn asunder by conflict. Ther new album Kel Tamasheq, produced by Tinariwen producer Justin Adams, showcases their continuing development as a vital force in global guitar-driven rock.
“Where so much in this style gets by on groove and attitude, Terakaft have variety, musicianship and well-crafted melodies on their side.” (fRoots)
(via Huun Huur Tu | The Cedar Cultural Center)
Or catch the Tuvan throat singers in Minneapolis at The Cedar this Sunday!
“
The Cedar welcomes back some old friends: the incredible Tuvan throat-singing quartet Huun Huur Tu! Otherworldly, beautiful music to transport you to another time and place.”
(via Brooklyn Rider with Kayhan Kalhor | The Cedar Cultural Center)
Monday, August 20, 2012 - 7:30pm
Hip string quartet Brooklyn Rider return to The Cedar, this time with Iranian kamancheh (Persian bowed string instrument) player and classical composer Kayhan Kalhor, with whom they collaborated on the highly praised recording Silent City (2008).
The program will include ‘Atashgah’, ‘Beloved, do not let me be discouraged’, and ‘Three Persian Miniatures’, all by Colin Jacobsen, ‘Culai’, which is a piece for string quartet by Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin that was a commission for Brooklyn rider by Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Grant, and Kayhan Kalhor’s ‘Silent City’.
