Music

 

GWMF 2017 - Uprising

Gibraltar is not only geographically superbly located, it is also a place whose identity and strong added values are marked on a day to day basis by the co-operation of cultures and spiritual beliefs. This reality is the messenger of the signs that the world needs today.

We believe that the example of Convivencia is the one message that the world needs to see and hear, more than ever.

The Gibraltar World Music Festival was born in 2012 and has been proposing the best World Music artists through prestigious and unique shows. Each year, the GWMF tells the story of a region of the world or a specific style of music with the ambition of delivering the same strong values of peace, universalism and spirituality as Convivencia.

For 2017 we decided to go beyond the music and the festival itself and introduce the BRIGHTMED.

The BrightMed has the ambition to celebrate these values and become a unique meeting point of North-South/East-West. We have invited Sages (World Peace Leaders) to come and discuss world issues, starting with Convivencia.

BrightMed events took place from the 6 to the 8 of June 2017 as part of the Gibraltar World Music Festival.

The BrightMed International Conference took place at the University of Gibraltar. The BrightMed Film Festival took place at Leisure Cinemas and projected documentaries reflecting the struggle of Musicians from Mali followed by the BrightMed Talks available for students and lead by Peace Leaders and other relevant speakers.

Various local artists from the Gibraltar Fine Arts Association joint the BrightMed Art Exhibition called Convivencia. Gibraltar Academy of Music and Performing Arts; Gibraltar International Dance Academy; Schools amongst others participated in creation of a street party named ‘AFREEKA’. As well as Friends of the Festival such as shops like Newton store participated in promoting these events.

The GWMF remained as the music entertainment of the week proposing the following theme: UPRISING, which further illustrated the BrightMed concept.

As per every edition, GWMF arranged a Street Party open to the population of Gibraltar, called AFREEKA, at Commonwealth Park and concerts at the St Michael’s cave. It told the story of artists from Africa (Ethiopia and Mali) and their continuous fight to exist as musicians despite the oppression from extremists.

Gibraltar World Music Festival – BrightMed Programme 2017

BrightMed Film Festival

Date: 6th June

Time: 17.00 to 21.00

Venue: Leisure Cinemas

Concept: The Festival began on 6th June with the screening of two documentaries: ‘They will have to kill us first’ and ‘Mali Blues’. ‘They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian music in exile’ is a feature-length documentary following musicians in Mali in the wake of a jihadist takeover and subsequent banning of music. ‘Mali Blues’ is a musical journey following Fatoumata Diawara and discovering the country’s rich musical culture and it’s threat by radical Islamists.

BrightMed Talks

Date: 7th June

Time: 09.00 to 12.00

Venue: Ince’s Hall

Concept: The BrightMed engaged speakers to deliver talks to students of Gibraltar.

GWMF Street Party – AFREEKA in the Park

Date: 7th June

Time: 19.00 to 22.30

Venue: Commonwealth Park and Sir Herbert Miles Promenade

Concept: The Festival offered a street party in the centre town of Gibraltar and for the population of Gibraltar. Gibraltar World Music Festival prepared a series of acts at Commonwealth Park involving the Gibraltar Academy of Music and Performing Arts and the Gibraltar International Dance Academy among others such as Loreto School and Prior Park. Local companies provided food and drinks and several charities showed their work. The musical program included the concerts of Bassekou Kouyate and Yossi Fine.

BrightMed International Seminar

Date: 8th June

Time: 09.00 to 12.00

Venue: University of Gibraltar

Concept: The Sages of the Med (i.e. Speakers) presented and debated about co-existence in peace in a conference organised at the University of Gibraltar.

GWMF Concerts – Uprising

Date: 8th June

Time: 20.00 to 22.30

Venue: St. Michael’s Cave

Concept: Three exceptional and unique shows with three exceptional artists: Yossi Fine with Music from the Blue Desert, Gili Yalo from Ethiopia; and the Malian Ngoni player and Griot: the artist Bassekou Kouyate.

Bassekou Kouyate is considered to be the best ngoni player in the world, revolutionizing the playing of this traditional instrument and gathering Ngonis with different size and pitches in his groovy band “Ngoni ba”. Griots are esteemed musician/storytellers whose lineage stretches back centuries. Bassekou was born into this resonant tradition but his relationship to it has been anything but static. He is also dug into Blues and Country music. Whether as a producer, arranger or bassist, Yossi Fine’s unique and undeniable talents have made him one of the most in demand names throughout a number of different genres. Throughout his years of playing and recording, he has worked with everyone from David Bowie and Lou Reed to Stanley Jordan and Gil Evans. A career spanning two decades and six continents includes seven gold and platinum CDs, Yossi fully engineered and produced over 25 albums, while contributing the bass on more than 150.

Gili Yalo combines Ethiopian roots with Soul, Funk, Groove, Psychedelic and Jazz music. The result is a rich, vivid, exceptional melody accompanied by Gili’s unique voice with lyrics in both English and Amharic. The music made by Gili embodies his own personal story, which inspires the rhythm and the flow of this whole music project. During Operation Moses, a mass migration of Ethiopian Jews fled from their native land on foot to refugees’ camps in Sudan. Together with his family, Gili walked through the desert towards the Promised Land and sang to his beloved ones. In the course of this exhausting and emotional journey it was the music that encouraged Gili and his family to keep on moving.

Gibraltar World Music Festival 2017