LantarenVenster - Zaal 1 | O. Festival | A Love Supreme

A Love Supreme‘s journey began in 2008 with Rajae El Mouhandiz’s fascination with the spiritual power of Gnawa music, John Coltrane’s iconic album A Love Supreme, and the intersections of both traditions within her North African and Islamic roots. She explores the deeper connections between these musical worlds, which seem far apart at first glance, and the role of Islamic spirituality in both. Both Coltrane’s approach to jazz and the Moroccan Gnawa tradition make intensive use of the pentatonic scale, which has a trance-inducing and incantatory effect. The repetitive riffs and bass lines that propel Coltrane’s A Love Supreme are rhythmically and harmonically related to the sounds of the guembri – the three-string bass instrument at the heart of Gnawa rhythms. This shared musical DNA forms a natural bridge between spiritual jazz and Sufi-based Gnawa music. A Love Supreme is a journey between worlds – from New York to Tangier to Rotterdam, and from jazz clubs to sacred Sufi rituals – in which music acts as a bridge between spiritual traditions, eras and continents. We hear new compositions by Rajae inspired by Gnawa structures, the spiritual intensity of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and in between, insights from musicians, historians, musicologists and thinkers. A Love Supreme is a dynamic dialogue between cultures, traditions and disciplines. It is a performance for anyone open to new musical experiences, wanting to learn more about the power of music, the influence of mystical Islam and the impact of these musical spiritual traditions on jazz, the beauty of cross-cultural dialogue and the connecting mystical dimension of Islam. Work in Progress A Work in Progress is a performance in the making. A performance that is not yet finished, but that the creators would like to share with audiences. As a visitor, you get a peek into the rehearsal room and help artists on their way to a fully-fledged performance, which will premiere in a future edition of O. “Rajae brings renowned Gnawa master Maalem El Gourd to O for this intimate musical session, and to think that this is ‘only’ another step on the way to a full-fledged musical theatre performance…” – Hans Blik, business director O.