Less than two weeks after the release of his third album IIIthe Montreal group Ayrad takes the stage this Thursday at the Jazz Festival to show what wood it is warming up.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“It’s more and more doped, it’s full of testosterone”, says Hamza laughing on the phone. Abouabdelmajid, leader of the group, talking about his new album. “Perhaps I had this desire to get out of the bitterness of COVID, from the ambient unhappiness of living, to seek a happier, more lively, more true, more frank sound. It goes through rock, but also through electro, through a big bass sound that makes your heart vibrate, that gets into you. »
Obviously, the Ayrad sound continues to integrate raï, Berber reggada and chaâbi, but with an increasingly powerful style. Raised by music-loving parents who listened to Zappa, Zeppelin, but also jazz and Arab-Andalusian music, Abouabdelmajid does not follow any recipe. He also rejects the term “fusion”: “You shouldn’t try to do fusion, you have to give birth to fusion”, maintains the guitarist.
I think that when we listen to our albums, we don’t say to ourselves that I tried to put some oriental in rock, we live it, it flows, it’s fluid. You have to tell yourself that it’s no longer fusion, but that it’s a genre apart.
Hamza Abouabdelmajid
A genre indeed all its own, which includes brass, violin with sometimes Balkan sounds, percussion which often ventures on the Latin side, not to mention the oboe, an instrument rarely used in rock. “We’re ready to play, but it clearly represents a challenge,” says Annick Beauvais, jazz-trained oboist. But Hamza always writes oboe or string scores, and then we adapt them as a group. »
All or nothing
Thursday on the Loto-Québec stage, Ayrad will pull out all the stops to show what kind of wood he’s warmed up to – there will exceptionally be nine musicians to play in front of the Jazz Festival audience!
“On stage, there are always at least six of us, we only have a plus formula, never a minus formula, tells us Annick Beauvais. The show will therefore be in the spirit of the disc, we will have two brass instruments and a keyboard in addition to the six of us. We’re really happy, it’s a new show, it’s a great opportunity for us to present the album. When you’re in front of a big crowd, that’s where you feel like you belong. We give a maximum of energy, we manage to get the crowds up. »
“The Montreal public is a public apart,” adds Hamza for his part. Abouabdelmajid, who remembers the group’s last visit to the FIJM in 2018.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, THE PRESS
Hamza Abouabdelmajid, who arrived from Morocco in 2005, saw his band Ayrad nominated for Juno awards for their first two albums, Ayrad in 2015 and Zoubida in 2019.
We are lucky to live in a city where the public is extraordinary, joyful, which has the gift of giving you the energy that allows you to give more. It’s the best audience in the world!
Hamza Abouabdelmajid
After the Jazz Festival, the group will go to the Magdalen Islands at the end of July to begin a tour that will take them all over the eastern part of the province. “It is in Ayrad’s mission to discover this eclectic side, to promote multiculturalism, new musical genres, supports the Quebec singer of Moroccan origin. That said, it’s also exciting to play in Quebec, because there is something reassuring, it’s our comfort zone. Playing in a room in Quebec is like playing in my living room, it’s family! »
Speaking of family, Hamza Abouabdelmajid composed the pieces for the third album in the midst of a pandemic when he not only had to take care of his young children aged 2 and 5, but also delve into his books from the Bar School. “For me, music is an escape,” explains the man who works in the litigation department at the Autorité des marchés financiers. The gyms were closed, so I took refuge in music, it was my way of keeping my balance. When you compose, to keep the inspiration, you have to be seated in peace, you are in your own world. If you can escape for two or three hours, that’s just fantastic. »
Ayrad, this Thursday, 6 p.m., at the Loto-Québec stage, at the corner of rue Clark and avenue du Président-Kennedy
The event: Cory Wong
PHOTO FROM CORY WONG’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Cory Wong
Hyperactive virtuoso, Cory Wong arrives at Club Soda with the firm intention of breaking the house. The Minneapolis guitarist and bassist is Prince’s spiritual son of sorts — he teamed up with Power Generation bassist Sonny Thompson from 1991 to 1996. His mix of funk, jazz and R&B is irresistible, just as much as the smile he keeps on his face all the time. It will also be an opportunity to see in person one of the most illustrious members of the Vulfpeck/Fearless Flyers nebula, a ferociously independent American funk group which, among other things, has afforded the luxury of renting Madison Square Garden in addition to launching a completely silent album, inviting its fans listening to it on repeat at night in an effort to get royalties from Spotify…
June 30 at Club Soda, 9 p.m. Opening act: Stacey Ryan.
Pierre-Marc Durivage, The Press
Discovery: AHI
PHOTO PROVIDED BY FIJM
AHI
To say AHI’s music—pronounced “eye”—is grounded is an understatement. The approach is folk, but absorbs many styles well established in North America: soul, gospel, nocturnal country, blues. A mixture of genres that perfectly suits his warm voice and a little scratchy. There is, in this Ontarian, everything you need to caress the ears of those who love folk imbued with spirituality and which has soul.
June 30, Rio Tinto Groove Stage, 8 p.m.
Alexandre Vigneault, The Press