Rhani Krija

Abdelrhani "Rhani" Krija (* 1971 in Essaouira , Morocco ) is a Moroccan musician and percussionist living in Cologne .

life and career

Essaouira , in the old town

Rhani Krija was born in 1971 to Moroccan parents in the Moroccan port city of Essaouira and grew up there. Since childhood he had practical experience of the Gnawa culture and music that was widespread in his home region, as well as various other, mostly Arabic-influenced, North African musical styles that shape his musical work today. He began his career as a professional percussionist as a teenager, playing with some of the most important Moroccan musicians.

After spending several years in France , Krija came to Germany in 1993 and has lived in Cologne ever since . In recent years he has appeared in various television programs, including the ARD program “Play me the song of life” with Giora Feidman and Wolf Codera . He has now played at numerous Jazz & World Music festivals in France, Germany, the Netherlands , Tunisia , Morocco , Argentina , Slovenia and other countries.

Krija masters and plays various percussion instruments such as Derbouka , Riqq and other frame drums , congas , bongos , Djembé , Caribbean timbales and a few others. His musical influences range from traditional Arabic, North African and Andalusian rhythms as well as Latin American musical styles to blues , reggae and pop .

He played in concerts and tours with various musicians, such as Houssaine Kili , Djamel Laroussi, Omar Sosa , Momo Djender, Avitall, Eda Zari, Don Byron , Karim Ziad , Mokhtar Samba , Salif Keïta , WDR Big Band Cologne , Vinnie Colaiuta , Dominic Miller , Adel Salameh, Keziah Jones and many others. Krija was involved in numerous CD and DVD recordings as a percussionist.

At the end of 2002 Krija was hired by Sting on a recommendation from Manu Katché and went on an 18-month world tour as a percussionist in Sting's Band in 2003. In 2003 Krija was also involved in the recording of Sting's album Sacred Love , which was released a year later. Since then he has repeatedly been on international tours as a percussionist with Sting's Band and has thus had joint stage appearances with jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea as well as with internationally known musicians and singers such as Mary J. Blige , Craig David , Manu Katché, Branford Marsalis and Annie Lennox , Plácido Domingo , Sean Paul , the Black Eyed Peas , Shaggy and others.

Since the end of 2005 he has also been involved in recordings with other internationally known musicians, such as B. Lea Finn , Natacha Atlas , Yasmin Levy , Joe Zawinul , BAP , Xavier Naidoo , Herbert Grönemeyer , Charlie Mariano and Klaus Doldinger . In addition, he received invitations to cultural festivals such as the RuhrTriennale 2008 and the International Percussion Festival in May 2009 in Freistadt in Upper Austria .

Krija also keeps in touch with the music scene in his Moroccan homeland and has been involved in cultural and music events in his birthplace Essaouira for years . For example, in August 2007 he took part in the Festival des Jeunes maâlem à Essaouira , where, among other things, he gave percussion workshops. In 2009 he was invited to the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Essaouira together with the WDR Big Band as a “Resident Group”.

He is still the mentor of the young German musician and percussionist Max Klaas , whose musical talent he discovered in 2005 when he was only 12 years old and whom he has been promoting ever since.

Among other things, Rhani Krija was presented in an interview in the December 2003 issue of the Sticks magazine , has entries in several music (s) databases such as Allmusic and 3sat (see web links) and is now considered a "world class musician" and "world class." -Percussionist ".

Discography (selection)

Rhani Krija is represented on numerous studio and live productions; Here is an excerpt from CDs on which his stylistic features emerge:

• 2001 - Mountain to Mohamed (by Houssaine Kili)
• 2001 - Experience (by Mohamed Reda)
• 2002 - Kanza (by Adel Salameh & Naziha Azzouz)
• 2002 - Statement (by Eda Zari)
• 2002 - Codera goes Christmas (by Wolf Codera)
• 2003 - Sacred Love (by Sting)
• 2003 - Etoile Filante (by Djamel Laroussi)
• 2005 - Martell (by Martell Beigang )
• 2006 - Fourth Wall (by Dominic Miller)
• 2006 - Good Morning Story (by Holger Czukay )
• 2007 - Jazz Al 'Arab (with the WDR Big Band Cologne)
• 2008 - we will remember them (by Avitall)
• 2008 - Police in Dub (by Dubxanne)
• 2009 - Mellow Maroc Live & Unplugged (with Mellow Mark and Momo Djender)
• 2010 - Halv su wild (by BAP )
• 2011 - Nights on earth (with Vince Mendoza )
• 2015 - Agua del Mundo (by Sven Kühbauch )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography, photos of Rhani Krija ( memento from June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at Drummerworld (English; last access : June 17, 2009).
2. ↑ Keith Carlock and Rhani Krija (Sting musicians)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), interview in the music journal Xound from April 2004 ( PDF file; 7 kB; last accessed : June 17, 2009).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Information about Rhani Kraji  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) at the International Percussion Festival Freistadt (Upper Austria) in Freistadt in Upper Austria (last accessed: June 18, 2009).
4. ↑ Culture: Le Festival des Jeunes maâlem à Essaouira ( Memento of December 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), August 2007, at www.casafree.com (French; last accessed: June 18, 2009).
5. ↑ Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival 2009 - Lineup at daftnotstupid.blogspot.com (English; last accessed: June 18, 2009).
6. ^ Announcement of the interview with Rhani Krija ( memento of April 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in the German drum magazine Sticks , issue 12.2003 (last accessed: June 18, 2009).
7. ↑ See among others: Augsburger Allgemeine from April 21, 2009; Solinger Tageblatt from June 2, 2009; Drum magazine drums & percussion ( memento from September 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) from June 2009.

Web links

• Sound carriers by Rhani Krija in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official website of Rhani Krija (English)
• Rhani Krija at 3sat
• Rhani Krija at Allmusic (English)
• Rhani Krija in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Biography of Rhani Krija in the project "African Sketchbook" of the Jazzpool NRW (English)
• Interview with Rhani Krija in the Islamische Zeitung on December 20, 2007
• Rhani Krija - Interview and workshop on the musician portal Bonedo