MUST BE 21+
Club d’Elf returns to The Lizard for another stop on its ongoing 25th Anniversary tour, with a line up that is a fan favorite: Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Paul Schultheis, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard & Dean Johnston.
Club d’Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time for almost twenty five years with its mesmerizing synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk. 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, NYC and beyond. The band’s music draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles, including jazz, hip hop, electronica, avant garde, prog-rock and dub. Under the tutelage of member Brahim Fribgane (who hails from Casablanca) the band has absorbed Moroccan trance music, which is now an essential part of the mix. Diverse audiences are drawn to Fribgane’s mesmerizing oud stylings, and Rivard’s commanding playing of the Moroccan sintir. Trance forms the central core of the Club d’Elf aesthetic, weavingtogether the band’s various influences.
In April 2022 the band released its latest album, ‘You Never Know’, which rose to #2 on the Relix chart. The record unfurls uponkaleidoscopic clouds of spiced smoke, shifting from chopped dub-jazz
through trance epics that reimagine Boston as a city of bazaars. Club d’Elf pay tribute to the music and musicians who have been primary
influences, with half the album being covers of gnawa, Miles Davis,Joe Zawinul, Moroccan band Nass el-Ghiwane, and Frank Zappa. The other
half consists of original music inspired by Rivard’s personal journeyinto darkness following a near death experience in the remote jungleof the Peruvian Amazon.
“You Never Know is a wide ranging romp, full of serenity, chaos,longing, improvisation and peerless musicianship inspired by music
from India and Morocco as well as the maverick jazz of Miles Davis andFrank Zappa.” – Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide
“Crushed between the borders of Morocco, jam band land and the kingdomof avant-garde jazz lies Club d’Elf…James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.” – Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald
“Sounds like the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, droppedin Marrakesh…some deeply psychedelic music.” – Marlon Bishop, WNYC
