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Boston-based, Moroccan-dosed dub-jazz collective Club d'Elf is an ever-shifting group of musicians fiercely dedicated to "the groove," revolving around the foundation of bassist/leader Mike Rivard. Consisting of some of the most sought-after players from the jazz, DJ, rock & world music scenes of Boston & NYC, each show features a different line-up, with Rivard and drummer Dean Johnston at the core. Guitars, turntables, Fender Rhodes, laptops, horns, tablas and all manner of exotic instruments flow in and out of the mix, along with guests such as John Medeski & Billy Martin, DJ Logic, Marc Ribot, Skerik, Ryan Montbleau and Marco Benevento, creating a unique experience for every performance. Informed as much by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick's ideas of shifting reality and parallel universes as by Miles Davis & Fela Kuti, the band finds inspiration in many sources, including the writings of neo-psychedelic avatar Terence McKenna and avant garde comedy troupe The Firesign Theater.

Club d'Elf'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, the band absorbed Moroccan trance influences such as gnawa and Berber music from the High Atlas mountains, and frequently adds these elements to the mix. Derived from such ancient sources as these, trance forms the central core of the Club d'Elf aesthetic, unifying all of the various genres the band has absorbed.

The band's bi-weekly residency at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA has become the stuff of legend, and over the course of its 19 year history D'Elf has toured internationally and played clubs and festivals throughout the North and Southeast US. Equally at home playing late-night festival sets for the rave/Burner crowd, as it is for a predominately Arabic audience, boundaries melt away and all are drawn into the intoxicating power of the D'Elf groove. The band's 2011 studio release, Electric Moroccoland/So Below drew glowing reviews from PRI's The World, Voice Of America, and Afropop Worldwide for its bold synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk, and rose to #1 on the Relix chart. Most recently the band made its South American debut, performing at Ecuador Jazz 2016. On it's new release, Live at Club Helsinki (due January 10, 2017) the music visits touchstones as disparate as John Cage, Studio One, 70s era Miles Davis, Moroccan Gnawa and drum'n'bass. The new CD is driven by Fribgane's mesmerizing oud stylings and Rivard's command of the Moroccan sintir, a 3-string bass lute used by the Gnawa, a mystical Moroccan brotherhood of trance-healers.

Tour dates with guest John Medeski are scheduled for January and February 2017. Show less