About Rafiki Jazz
Fourth World Music
Rafiki Jazz Description
RAFIKI JAZZ are a 9-piece world music collective
'a stunning, virtuosic, internationalist show
(BBC Folk Singer of the Year Nancy Kerr)
'Close your eyes, it's the music you'd expect to hear in heaven'
(Dimitris Diamadis: Talking Gigs)
'The most diverse band in the UK, a host of musicians spanning four continents with migrant &
refugee artists at its heart and immense sincerity and compassion coursing through their songs'
(Sashwati Mira Sengupta: Counterpoint Arts)
New 2017 album release 'Har Dam Sahara' (TUGCD1106) is 'a love-letter to this intricate world, its beauty and complexity' (RachelJackson: World Music Network). The album's Urdu title translates as 'in life's every moment there's always support', and the songs reach across the faiths, languages & cultures of the collective's musicians, drawing on the beauty and poetry of Pakistan & Senegal's mystic Sufi traditions and ancient Middle Eastern Coptic, Arabic & Hebrew roots.
Singers & Players:
Sarah Yaseen: Urdu & Punjabi vocals, percussion
Avital Raz: Hebrew & Hindi vocals, tanpura
Mina Mikhail Salama: Coptic vocals, oud, ney & kawala flutes, duduk
Kadialy Kouyate: Mandinka & Wolof vocals, kora, sabar
Cath Carr: guitar, steelpans
Tony Koni: bass guitar, sabar
Johnny Ball: tabla, derbuka
Guery Tibirica: berimbau, pandeiro, gumbe
Vijay Venkat: violin, viola
Reviews
and here's Nancy Kerr's brand new #SheffieldFolkHarmonyCollective gracing our upcoming new album #Saraba (Utopia) as very special guests
Konimusic's #MrTK Tony Bowring & audio wiz Robin Downe currently hidden away editing & mixing our amazing new #Saraba (Utopia) album tracks featuring these #Rafikians Vijay Venkat Kadialy Kouyate Sarah Yaseen Avital Raz Music & Theatre Mina Mikhael Salama & more!
Here's a snap of a trio of some of the fab guest vocalists featured on our upcoming #Saraba (Utopia) album. English folk singer Greg Russell, Gaelic singer Kaitlin Ross & Colombian shamanic chanter Juan Gabriel Gutiérrez
Finishing touches to our beautiful new #Saraba album track #Azadi with @sarahthesufi @avital.raz @konimusicagency
our #WOMAD2018 revisited! Click through for clips..
we're sadly sharing this in tribute to our Riverboat Records label boss Phil Stanton bless him.. https://www.worldmusic.net/…/in-memory- of-phil-stanton-by-…/
we're back in Yellow Arch Studios as an all-instrumental #Rafikian sextet live-recording another unstoppable groove ready for vocals...new song for upcoming 2019 album 'Saraba'.. photo by Ayse Balko
Woop! brilliant new 2019 album The Rough Guide To Women Of The World https://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/RGN ET1381/ includes our fab qawwali track Jhooli Laal Qalandar featuring... 'Sarah Yaseen aka ‘Sarah The Sufi, is one of the lead singers in Rafiki Jazz, a remarkably cosmopolitan band who explore ancient musical heritages far and wide. Inspired by her father Sufi Muhammad Yaseen, Sarah’s Punjabi vocals reach out to your very soul on ‘Jhooli Laal Qalandar’ a classic reworking of the landmark traditional Qawaali song ‘Mustt Mustt’.
It's great to see that 'Jhooli Laal Qalandar' our lovely #Rafikian rendition of #qawaali classic Dam Mast Qalandar is playlisted here at California's Rhythm Planet thanks Tom Schnabel at KCRW :)