Samir LanGus & Sivan Arbel

Doors: 7:00pm

Show: 7:30pm

Samir LanGus & Sivan Arbel

An intimate evening of Middle Eastern and Moroccan sounds

This debut performance by Israeli vocalist Sivan Arbel and Moroccan musician Samir LanGus will feature songs rooted in the Gnawa tradition with an Israeli-Jazz spin.

Sivan Arbel - voice

Samir LanGus - sinir and voice

Nizar Dahmani - percussion

Samir LanGus is a Grammy nominated musician, born and raised in the city of Agadir, Morocco. Music has always been a part of the constant variety of street sounds of his city, from merchants to entertainers and calls to prayer. LanGus began learning Gnawa, a traditional, spiritual trance music, when he was 8 years old from the Gnawa masters of Morocco.

For the uninitiated, Gnawa music is the ritual trance music of Morocco’s black communities, originally descended from slaves and soldiers once brought to Morocco from Northern Mali and Mauritania. Often called “The Moroccan Blues”, Gnawa music has a raw, hypnotic power that has fascinated outsiders as diverse as writer/composer Paul Bowles, jazz giant Randy Weston and rock god Jimi Hendrix. The music is utterly singular, played on an array of unique instruments — from the lute-like sintir that the band leader uses to call the tune, to the metal karqaba, castanets with which the kouyos (chorus) keep time and pound out clattering, hypnotic rhythms. The music is believed to heal people possessed by jinn, or spirits in all night ceremonies called lila. But “Gnawa is not just the music,” says Samir. “It’s the culture. You can’t play just the sintir, you also need the karqaba (karakeb is the plural of karkaba) to have the Gnawa spirit.” He describes the sintir, a stringed percussion instrument made of wood and camel skin with goat gut strings, as a “powerful instrument” with an amazing sound. “You feel it in your heart,” he says.

LanGus makes great use of this traditional repertoire, and adds his own, contemporary spin with additional jazz instrumentation. Taken as a whole, this exciting new artist fuses a centuries old North African tradition with the pulse and attitude of New York City now. He would like to collaborate with diverse musicians improvising new sounds that respect the Gnawa tradition.

Critically acclaimed Israeli Vocalist Sivan Arbel is a composer and arranger, a worldwide performer, and an effervescent talent on the international jazz scene. Some of her recent performances have taken place at the Minsk Jazz Festival, Bratislava Jazz Days Festival, Lincoln Center in NYC, Boston Jazz Festival, 4020 Festival in Austria, to name a few.

“Sivan Arbel is a singer with an angelic, elastic tone” - All About Jazz

Since moving to NYC in 2014, Sivan has put out two albums: “Broken Lines” (2016) and “Change of Light” (2019), which was selected by Jazz2K as Best Vocal Disc of 2019. Sivan has collaborated with a wide array of musicians such as Japanese band Ichimujin, Pandero player Tuliio Araujo, Groove it Forward Project pianist Guy Mintus, as well as several dance projects.

Room 31 is a new beautiful and intimate listening room at Arlo NoMad hotel hosting live events, Jazz, Blues, Roots, Americana, Poetry and more.

Only 30 seats, order your tickets now!

$25 at the door

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Room 31 at Arlo NoMad, 11 East 31st Street, New York, United States