The World's Music at Oxford: Kefaya + Elaha Soroor
Free entry - registration required.
The World's Music at Oxford returns with an electric fusion of UK jazz and Afghan women's songs, plus support from Saad Barcha Hunzai
Kefaya are one of the most exciting and forward-thinking groups in London’s bubbling jazz scene. Elaha Soroor is a Hazara singer, composer and activist from Afghanistan. For seven years, these musicians have worked together to create a blend of Afghan folk traditions, UK jazz, electronica and psychedelic rock that transcends borders and offers a voice to the marginalised.
Elaha Soroor’s story is infused within her music: finding fame and fury through her participation in Afghan Star (think X Factor in Kabul) and her outspoken support of women’s rights; performing under a pseudonym for the safety of her family; fleeing the country under threats of assassination and arriving in the UK among a shipment of watermelons; becoming one of the most literally and metaphorically powerful voices in the UK’s Afghan community. With Kefaya – Al MacSween (keys), Giuliano Modarelli (guitar), and Joost Hendrickx (drums) – she and they honour the women of Afghanistan by singing their songs and telling their stories that have been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries.
It’s an award-winning collaboration that has achieved rave reviews in as disparate publications as Songlines, Uncut, the Financial Times and Mojo, and whose themes have only grown more pertinent with the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. But the group’s commitment to beautiful, dance-inducing, masterfully innovative and absolutely ecstatic music has not dimmed a single degree. With a highly-anticipated forthcoming album on the way, we’re thrilled to be welcoming Kefaya + Elaha Soroor to the World’s Music at Oxford!
The concert will be introduced by support from Saad Barcha Hunzai. Saad performs traditional folk melodies from Northern Pakistan on the Afghan rubab - an ancestor of the modern-day sarod. Originally from Hunza Valley in Northern Pakistan, Saad is a DPhil candidate in Music at St. John's College whose research and virtuosity centre the musical and literary traditions of Northern Pakistan. For this performance, he will be joined by Haider Ali on the duff and daamal drums.
