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KCSB-FM Presents Free Cinema and Live Music Night at UCSB
October 14, 2017 @ 6:30 am PDT
On Saturday, October 14, community-radio station 91.9 KCSB-FM hosts a film premiere and concert at UCSB’s MultiCultural Center Theater. The evening includes a screening of Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Rain the Color of Blue With a Little Red In It), a reimagining of Prince’s Purple Rain, and will conclude with a live performance by the film’s star, Tuareg guitarist/singer Mdou Moctar.
The screening is at 6:30pm. Admission is free and all are invited!
(Santa Barbara, CA) — Mdou Moctar is a pioneer of Tuareg guitar music, a style that has recently shown up on music charts and at North American music venues and festivals thanks to the popularity of groups like Tinariwen, Bombino, and Terakaft. Based in Agadez in Northern Niger, the young guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mdou Moctar is becoming increasingly recognized for his own musical experimentation and boundary-pushing work.
His 2008 psychedelic-tinged Saharan desert-rock LP Anar was met with success via MP3 networks throughout West Africa. One of its standout tracks was featured on Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 1, a 2011 album of rare music compiled by U.S. record label Sahel Sounds.
Mdou’s relationship with Christopher Kirkley — the founder of this Portland, Oregon-based world-music label — blossomed further with the 2015 release of Kirkley’s film Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Rain the Color of Blue With a Little Red In It), which not only pays tribute to Prince’s hit movie Purple Rain, but also to the 1973 Jamaican cult-classic reggae film The Harder They Come. The first ever Tuareg-language film, Akounak tells a fictional story of the struggle of a guitarist trying to make it against all odds in Agadez. (The title reflects how there is no word for “purple” in the Tamasheq language.)
Still image from Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Kirkley, 2015: Niger).
This month, Sahel Sounds just released their fifth Mdou Moctar album, Sousoume Tamachek, and his first U.S. tour will conclude in Santa Barbara on October 14th, when both Mdou and Christopher Kirkley will appear in person at UCSB’s MultiCultural Center Theater.
That night, KCSB-FM and UCSB’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music (CISM) will co-present the area debut of Akounak, immediately followed by a conversation and Q&A with writer/director Kirkley and UCSB Professor of Music David Novak. (Showtime is 6:30pm.)
Next up will be an eclectic music set by Los Angeles-based DJ Carlos Niño (of Dublab and KPFK fame), followed by Mdou Moctar and his band performing live at 9pm, a set sure to blend soulful and bluesy guitar work with danceable and high-energy rhythms too.
KCSB’s support for emerging artists and independent labels includes bringing performers from far-and-wide to the area. Headliners at KCSB’s two “Hello World!” concerts were L.A. rock band Chicano Batman — in 2014 — and Scientist, from Kingston, Jamaica — in 2015. During spring of 2015, KCSB hosted Brazilian musician Rodrigo Amarante at The Goodland Hotel, while last May it presented Syrian techno musician Omar Souleyman in Storke Plaza. (KCSB’s commitment to Santa Barbara’s live music scene also includes its 2017 launching of a free, monthly, “courtyard concert” series under Storke Tower.)
UCSB’s MultiCultural Center and CISM co-sponsor this all-ages event which is free and open to the public. This is KCSB’s first major event of the 2017-2018 school year.
About KCSB-FM: Non-commercial community radio KCSB offers sounds and perspectives from the Tri-Counties and free year-round training to individuals and groups without other access to media resources. Both student and non-student volunteers learn to produce music, news, sports, cultural arts, and public affairs content airing 24/7/365 at 91.9 FM (kcsb.org). Most shows are produced locally, but KCSB hosts national and international programs too. Part of Associated Students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), KCSB is financed by self-assessed student fees and listener support, and receives no State money from the University.
About CISM: The Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music (CISM) is an association of faculty and students at UCSB that promotes the study of music across academic disciplines. CISM begins with the position that music is an important and powerful cultural practice, which becomes fundamental in shaping the materialities and methods of social life. By sponsoring diverse projects that engage multiple fields of knowledge, CISM works to expand the boundaries of traditional music research by creating an environment for high-level study and discussion of music that is not restricted to specialists.