Maghreb Mania

..Maghreb Mania has been set up by Khalil (Keys/songwriter) and Mohammed (background/organisation & management). Khalil and Mohammed have been friends since a long time and always were busy with music. Mohammed mainly behind the scenes and Khalil with making and playing music.After many years of experience by Khalil in the Moroccan music scene and after a lot of performances with great Arab artists, they thought that it became time to present our own sound. Khalil started to write his own songs and Mohammed started with the organisation. After a course of time the first numbers started to be developed. After receiving positive responses from several angles and when the band was extended with experienced, motivated and great musicians, Maghreb Mania has arisen.The aim is to write our own music with some exceptions, like for example a traditional number put in a new jacket. The band members are:Greg Smith (drums) Danny (guitar) Hassan (bass) Julio (percussion) Khalil (Keyboard / background vocalist) Zailachi (Lead vocalist / Karakeb) Mohammed (background vocalist / karakeb/bendir/MC) Kamal (background vocalist / karakeb / tbal) Mustafa (Hajhouj/Banjo)Style:Maghreb Mania is a group of musicians which keeps itself busy by making Maghreb-fusion. The Maghreb is an area (Northwest-Africa) where a lot of cultures meet, this brings along a lot of influences, as a result of which the Maghreb in musical area is enormously varied. Especially Morocco and Algeria are well known for their enormously enrichment of the North African sound in Europe, of course also Egypt has made an enormous contribution with the classic Arabian music, however Egypt does not belong to the Maghreb area.The members of Maghreb Mania are mainly Moroccan of origin, from Tangier (North) to Agadir (south). But not only from Morocco, the guitar player is from Suriname, the percussionist is from Brazil and the drummer from Canada. Some members were born in the Netherlands and some members came on an older age, they all made the western culture their own and mixed it with their native culture so culture fusions have found place. It was only a matter of time time that this also was going to take place in musical area. The goal of Maghreb Mania is to make a fusion between the Maghreb music styles and the different western music styles and perform before all kind of audiences. The bases of Maghreb Mania are the different North African rhythms and music styles like for example gnawa, rai and chaabi. They merge these with the different Western music styles, like for example reggae, rock, jazz, latin and pop.By for example combining the trance music from dark Africa (gnawa) and the whipping rhythms from the Moroccan chaabi, with rocking guitar solo’s and jazzy piano solo’s, Maghreb Mania creates a fusion of the most beautiful sounds and rhythms. Also rai-music (Algerian pop music) occurs mixed in the repertoire in fusion-version with several other styles. Reggae is a music flow which is very liked in North Africa and here too they give it a Maghreb twist.It is all about fusion at Maghreb Mania, seeing to surprise the public and let them enjoy a world where the differences in language, culture, race or religion do not stand in the way of the pleasure of dancing and making music.In short Maghreb Mania brings Maghreb-fusion as it should, Music bidoun houdoud (music without boundaries) where musical roller coasters, the pleasure of making music and bringing the people together and dance together are their number one priority. ..Pictures copyright Arjen van Berlo