Safi – As part of a year marking 250 years of friendship between Morocco and the United States, the Tangier American Legation hosts a special evening of Latin jazz on Friday, June 19.
The evening will be celebrating the legacy of Tangier-born impresario Jacques Muyal and the roots of Latin jazz in Tangier.
The evening honors Muyal, a Tangier native and an impresario, the kind of behind-the-scenes figure who books talent and brings performers and audiences together.
The setting is the Legation itself, the former American diplomatic mission in the city, now a museum and cultural center at 8 Zankat Amrika.
The program comes in two parts. At 5 p.m., a roundtable opens the evening under the title “The History of Latin Jazz in Tangier: a Tribute to Jacques Muyal,” a moderated panel led by Hisham Aidi, who curated the night, and Randa Jebrouni.
The concert follows at 6 p.m., with Grammy-nominated players beside the next generation of Tangier’s own Gnawa musicians. The bill lists Abir Al Abed, TK Blue, Roman Lajara, Caleb Michel, Steve Murillo, and Ariacne Trujillo Duran, joined by Abdeljabbar and Halima El Gourd of Dar Gnawa, the Tangier group that carries the city’s Gnawa tradition.
Both the talk and the concert are free, though space is limited and the Legation will close admission once it fills. The evening sets out to trace how Latin jazz took root in Tangier, and to keep that history in view.
