أحمد [ahmed]

PROGRAMME

15:00-16:30: talks (Labozaal)
17:00: concert (Soetezaal)

• أحمد [ahmed]

أحمد [ahmed] brings heavy rhythmic music based on repetitive patterns and swinging rhythmic shifts in accent. A powerful punch in the stomach that subsequently transitions into a deep feeling of ecstasy. The foundation for the quartet is the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik, a now deceased New York bassist and composer who introduced Arabic and East African influences into jazz music. His thoughts and melodies shine through in the music of أحمد [ahmed], which is formed by some of the best European improvisational musicians: Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright. Their albums, released from 2017 to the present, are unparalleled journeys that excel in technique and endurance. But أحمد [ahmed] is a band that you really have to see live, and now you can do so for the first time in Belgium.

Pat Thomas: piano
Seymour Wright: alto saxophone
Joel Grip: double bass
Antonin Gerbal: drums
 

“After the concert, Thomas is spent. Gerbal is soaked in sweat. Grip’s hands are bleeding. Wright is unable to speak, with lips and tongue like jelly. Soon each player will head home, not to see one another until it’s time to do it all again.” - Pitchfork about أحمد [ahmed]

“In using Abdul-Malik’s music as a springboard for improvisation, [Ahmed] create vital new music that is the antithesis of conservative museum jazz.” - The Quietus about أحمد [ahmed]

• Echoes of Dissent (Vol. 8): talks

Preceding the concert of أحمد [Ahmed] and on the occasion of the publication of a book compiling writings by and about أحمد [Ahmed], STUK is hosting an extensive conversation with the band members. We will discuss improvisation as investigation and making music as a medium of thought; the music and ideas of Ahmed Abdul-Malik and the Arabic and Muslim roots of Jazz and improvised music; the importance of probing in and into ‘jazz’ and the possibilities of new jazz nutation; أحمد [Ahmed] as an accommodating and radical vision of synthesis and open structure(s) and a shared space of (re-)imagination and (re-)interpretation.

In the context of the research project Echoes of Dissent (KASK & Conservatory / School of Arts Gent), in collaboration with In vitro.

The أحمد [Ahmed] publication is published by In vitro and KASK School of Arts

Edited by أحمد [ahmed]. Series editors: Stoffel Debuysere, Jef Lambrechts, Will Holder.