OkayAfrica’s Nereya Otieno sits down with Egyptian jazz musician Maurice Louca to talk about the origins of his new album, Elephantine.
“The French composer Claude Debussy once famously said “Music is the space between the notes.” Decades later, jazz great Miles Davis echoed this sentiment by saying “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.”
For Maurice Louca, a musician based in Cairo, the concept of the space between the notes–the absence of sound and how he plays with it–has been an integral part of his life and musical progression. Louca is releasing his latest work, Elephantine, on February first. He says it is his “most ambitious work yet.” In it, Louca (who plays guitar and piano) leads a 12-piece ensemble through a swirling, hypnotic jumble of cosmic jazz that has a feeling of perpetual motion. Think Kamasi Washington if he had grown up listening to mesmerizing Yemeni chants and Egyptian shaabi pop.”
Listen to the opening track from Elephantine below and learn more about Louca’s Rewire 2019 performance atMaurice Louca Elephantine Band.
Rewire 2019 Festival Passes and Day Tickets are now available atTickets.