The Falcon Outdoor Stage | No Tickets | No Cover | Donations Encouraged | Reservations Required
"One of the most inventive and ever-changing bands in all of new jazz" - Russ Davis, Jazz America
"....the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh...deeply psychedelic...." - WNYC
Club d'Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time since its first show twenty three years ago at Boston's Lizard Lounge, and since then has taken its bold synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk to audiences as far away as Japan and South America. Circling about bassist/composer Mike Rivard and drummer Dean Johnston, each Club d'Elf performance features a different line-up, drawn from a constellation of some of the most creative improvisers from the jazz, DJ, rock & world music scenes of Boston and NYC. The band's music has been called "the music of dreams" by the Boston Globe, and draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles, including jazz, Moroccan Gnawa, hip hop, psychedelia, electronica, avant garde and dub....
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The Falcon Outdoor Stage | No Tickets | No Cover | Donations Encouraged | Reservations Required
"One of the most inventive and ever-changing bands in all of new jazz" - Russ Davis, Jazz America
"....the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh...deeply psychedelic...." - WNYC
Club d'Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time since its first show twenty three years ago at Boston's Lizard Lounge, and since then has taken its bold synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk to audiences as far away as Japan and South America. Circling about bassist/composer Mike Rivard and drummer Dean Johnston, each Club d'Elf performance features a different line-up, drawn from a constellation of some of the most creative improvisers from the jazz, DJ, rock & world music scenes of Boston and NYC. The band's music has been called "the music of dreams" by the Boston Globe, and draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles, including jazz, Moroccan Gnawa, hip hop, psychedelia, electronica, avant garde and dub.
Club d'Elf has been featured on PRI's The World, Voice Of America, and Afropop Worldwide, with Time Out New York describing the music as “The roaring avant-funk of electric-era Miles (and) the legato drift of the Grateful Dead…heady music that doesn’t neglect the tail”. The Boston Herald proclaimed “Crushed between the borders of Morocco, jam band land and the kingdom of avant-garde jazz lies Club d’Elf…James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.”
Derived from ancient sources, trance forms the central core of the Club d'Elf aesthetic, unifying the various genres the band has absorbed. Guitars, turntables, Fender Rhodes, laptops, horns, tablas and all manner of exotic instruments flow in and out of the mix, along with Rivard's commanding playing of the Moroccan sintir, a camel-skin-covered bass lute. A mind-boggling array of special guests have been featured with D'Elf, including Mark Sandman (Morphine), Hassan Hakmoun, Marc Ribot, Reeves Gabrels (Bowie/The Cure), Adam Deitch, DJ Logic, Ryan Montbleau, Marco Benevento and Skerik.
Special Guests: John Medeski (Piano/Keyboards) & David Fiuczynski (fretted & fretless guitars)
Medeski has been an unofficial member since the band's inception, and is featured on many of the bands albums including 2017's Live at Club Helsinki. In 2018 he joined the band for its first appearance at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and this past October he performed with the band live in the studio on an array of vintage keyboards, as D'Elf began sessions for its latest album, due for September 2021 release.
Fiuczynski's association with Club d'Elf goes back over 15 years, including a 2010 tour of Japan, and he is featured on the album Gravity All Nonsense Now. He and Medeski have a new trio playing the music of John Zorn.
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