415-861-2011
Take musical royalty from a war-torn territory in northwest Africa; add electric guitars, conflict, parties, and the scorching sun; and you get Group Doueh, the western Sahara's most acclaimed transcendental rock band. Its latest Sublime Frequencies album, Zayna Jumma, combines Cream- and Jimi Hendrix-style rock with traditional Arabic and North African instruments, percussion, and ecstatic chanting, all of which shifts in undulating waves like desert drifts. Fronted by guitarist Salmou Baamar, Doueh's blend of Afrofunk, psych, and Saharan traditions emphasizes its rebel roots and acts as a musical bridge to the West. The octet makes its first U.S. appearance in San Francisco in what's essentially the culmination of a huge journey: It took the band members from playing wedding parties in their home in a disputed stretch of African desert (Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania all claim it) to American shores.
415-861-2011
