Halloween has long been a sacred (scared?!) day for Club d'Elf, and Halloween shows are a long-standing tradition. This year the show falls on the very day itself, and a Friday at that. Costumes are encouraged!
Mike Rivard - Bass & Sintir
Fabio Pirozzolo - Drums & Vocal
Paul Schultheis - Keyboards
Mister Rourke - Turntables
With guest guitarists Duke Levine (Bonnie Raitt, Mary Chapin Carpenter) and Kevin Barry (Jackson Browne, Lori McKenna).
Club d’Elf has been helping audiences lose track of time for twenty seven years with its mesmerizing synthesis of Moroccan traditional music and electronic, dubbed-out funk. Circling about bassist/composer Mike Rivard, 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. Named Jazz Act of 2023 in the Boston Music Awards, the bands music draws from a startlingly wide spectrum of styles that goes beyond any single category, including hip hop, electronica, avant garde, prog-rock and dub. Under the tutelage of member Brahim Fribgane (who was born in Casablanca) the band absorbed Moroccan trance music, which is now an essential part of the mix. Fribgane passed away in early 2024, but his spirit lives on in the music, particularly inRivard’s commanding playing of the Moroccan sintir – an instrument he learned to play through the guidance of Fribgane, as well as Gnawa masters Hassan Hakmoun and Mahmoud Guinia. Trance forms the central core of the Club d’Elf aesthetic, weaving together the band’s various influences.
The band's most recent album, ‘You Never Know’ (2022), garnered critical acclaim and rose to #2 on the Relix chart. The record unfurls upon kaleidoscopic 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 journey into darkness following a near death experience in the remote jungle of the Peruvian Amazon. Sessions for a new album began in January 2024, with a Spring 2026 release expected.
Photo credit: Joshua Touster 2025
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