Mastodawn

Moor Mother w/ Aquiles Navarro & Olof Melander (US/PAN/SE) + James McClure & Joao Guerra (ZAF/PT)

OCCII, Thursday, June 4 at 08:30 PM GMT+2

SPACE IS THE PLACE:: “Moor Mother live at OCCII” Moor Mother (US) w/ Aquiles Navarro (PA) & Olof Melander (SE) + James McClure (ZA) / Joao Guerra (PT)

Surprise gig! Moor Mother plays live at OCCII (Amsterdam), backed up by her musical soulmates Aquiles Navarro and Olof Melander! Expect the unexpected: new work, improv, and a selection from Moor Mother’s rich oeuvre.

Opening: James McClure & João Guerra

Vocalist and poet Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother describes her music as “low fi/dark rap/blk girl blues/witch rap/coffee shop riot gurl songs/black ghost songs”. Her vast discography meanders adventurously between jazz, hip hop, and noise, with records under her own name, under the moniker 700 Bliss (with DJ Haram), or in collaborations with Irreversible Entanglements, the avant-metal band SUMAC, and many more.

“Moor Mother might be the most radical Afrofuturist artist to emerge for years” – The Wire

https://moormother.bandcamp.com/

Recently, Moor Mother has moved toward a more melodic and song-oriented approach, while still blending spoken word, experimental jazz, electronics, and radical poetry. Her album Jazz Codes (2023) draws from her poetry project and pays tribute to jazz visionaries such as Woody Shaw and Mary Lou Williams, combining layered vocals, atmospheric production, and free-form improvisation in collaboration with Swedish producer Olof Melander. On her latest full length album The Great Bailout (2024), she expands this cinematic and haunting sound into a powerful meditation on colonial history, displacement, and collective memory, moving between tenderness, noise, jazz abstraction, and poetic storytelling.

Internationally renowned trumpeter Aquiles Navarro — also her bandmate in Irreversible Entanglements and multi-faceted artist in his own right— contributed to Jazz Codes as well as Circuit City and Analog Fluids Of Sonic Black Holes, and later collaborated with Melander on the album Tangles (2024).

Moor Mother – "ALL THE MONEY" (feat. Alya Al-Sultani)

Watch this video on YouTube

Moor Mother – "DEATH BY LONGITUDE"

Watch this video on YouTube

James McClure & João Guerra

An ongoing conversation between friends. Forever searching, forever learning, the South African-Portuguese duo moves with love and intention through uneasy conversations in hopes of change. The music is an extension of their relationship, a continuation of dialogue, listening, and shared exploration. Alongside the duo, they are also bandmates in SOFAYA, an ensemble centered around South African music and heritage.

James McClure – trumpet
João Guerra – drums

This event is present by Space is the Place
Since its founding in 2017, SITP has organized improvised music concerts that encourage creativity across genres and disciplines. Over the years, it has expanded through collaborations with venues and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad, including BIMHUIS, Paradiso, WORM, and many more!

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/moor-mother-with-aquiles-navarro-and-olof-melander-james-mcclure-and-joao-guerra