Majid Bekkas

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GnLFJ6KaPM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq2I7A_ulXI

Majid Bekkas 

Bekkas studied classical guitar and oud at the Rabat Conservatory for Music and Dance from 1975. In Gnawa music he was instructed by Maâllem Ba Houmane. After initial experiences with his own bands in the 1980s, he founded his trio Gnaoua Blues Band in 1990, with which he attempted to relate blues and Gnawa music to one another. Over the next few years he also incorporated elements of jazz and played with numerous jazz musicians, including Klaus Doldinger, Louis Sclavis, Archie Shepp, Randy Weston, Klaus Doldinger, Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake).

Bekkas has performed with great success at international festivals such as WOMEX Seville 2003, Grenoble Jazz Festival or Schloss Elmau as a soloist, in a trio or in world music projects. In 2002, Ramón López invited him to collaborate on his tribute album for Roland Kirk.

His collaboration with pianist Joachim Kühn and drummer Ramón Lopez was legendary, with whom he recorded three CDs for ACT and toured across Europe.

The band gave guest appearances at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and the Berlin Jazz Days together with Pharoah Sanders, in Saalfelden (with guest Archie Shepp) and at various festivals in France.

Since 1996 he has also been one of the two artistic directors of the Jazz au Chellah Festival in Rabat.

Michael Hornek

Michael Hornek received piano lessons at the age of five. At the age of fifteen he began studying classical piano as a young student at the Innsbruck Conservatory. From 1996 he studied jazz piano at the conservatory in Linz. In 2000 he became keyboardist with the Austrian brass ensemble Pro Brass. After studying in New York City and concerts with Nouvelle Cousine and Bumi Fian, he founded the band Yumag together with Peter O’Mara, Patrick Scales and Christian Lettner in 2006, with which he released the CD „Live im Kongress“. In 2004 he produced the record „Jung und schön“ by the Swiss actress and singer Maria Bill, who lives in Vienna. Since 2008 he has been a permanent member of the band Soleil Bantu led by percussionist Biboul Darouiche.

In 2009 he became a permanent member of Klaus Doldingers Passport. The record „Doldinger“ achieved platinum status in Germany. He has also been active with Willi Landl since 1996, with whom he has released four records to date.

Childo Tomás

Childo Tomás is a electric bass  and kalimba player, percussionist and vocalist, born in Maputo. He Sings in Ronga . In 1994 he moved  from Mozambique to Spain, settling in Barcelona.

Childo Tomás participated in major world festivals, such as: Jazz Festival in Barcelona, Jazz Festival in Rome, Blue-Note (Tokyo – Yokohama – Nagoya) and Jazz Festival in Chicago.

He is member of Omar Sosa Quarteto Afrocubano and  Yilian Cañizares „Resilience Trio“.

Karim Ziad

Karim Ziad grew up in Algiers. At the age of 20 he emigrated to Paris, where he very quickly made contact with the local world and fusion music scene. There he worked with artists such as Cheb Mami and Nguyên Lê, through which he experienced growing fame. In the late 1990s he was hired by Joe Zawinul for his project „The Zawinul Syndicate“. Karim Ziad also played with the WDR Big Band (Jazz al’Arab).

Ziad combines traditional rhythms from North Africa and the Maghreb with European and American sounds. He is not fixated on jazz, but is also involved in cross-genre projects. As influences he names Chaâbi (Algerian folk music), the Gnawa traditions (in 2015 he worked together with Mahmoud Guinea), Bedouin songs, Raï as well as Egyptian film music and French chansons.