Our first Xalam Trio performance ✨ “O Yiro” a traditional Senegalese song sung by Baaba Maal 🇸🇳 With my dear friends Dana Roth on xalam bass & Oded Aloni on calabash. Joined by the amazing audience singing. Live at Tarab.
Recorded by Dor Segal
Vid by Dana Roth
—
DM to get your xalam handmade in Senegal by master maker Abdoulaye Diop. Worldwide shipping ♥️🙏🏽🇸🇳
Three years in the making, our Earth Beat project reaches its peak as we close the Earth Celebration by Kodo on Sado Island, Japan. Bringing together my biggest inspirations from Senegal and Japan, Yuta Sumiyoshi and I have been imagining this moment for a long time, and it is so special to see it come to life.
Here are some moments from our rehearsals with Aly Ndiaye Rose, Baye Dame Bou Yaye, and the Kodo drummers. Sharing the stage is only the final chapter of a much longer journey filled with good food, laughter, and deep cultural exchange, built on respect, curiosity, and true connection.
Soon we will share footage from our concert. ♥️🙏🏽🇸🇳🇯🇵
Ready for tonight’s show at @ueberschlag_festival festival, the first show of my tour in Germany-Austria. The vibe is great and the drums are tight🇸🇳❤️🤘🏾🙏🏽 starting 23:30 at the GOP Theater, Hannover, free entrance.
Every project I make in Senegal is not really a project. Its a result of a deep connection with Aly my teacher, the legacy of his father, his family and our desire to create together. In these slides you can see a bit from the process. Studying with Aly at the beach, enjoying a tea break, transcriptions of the rhythms that I make for the preservation and documentation, the people behind the drums, the process, the connection.
Join my newsletter for more of this. 🔗 Link in bio
Photos and videos by my brothers @rshneck@orbenzri
SAAJI - the second Laamb rhythm from our new album dedicated to the traditional wrestling rhythms of the Serere people of Senegal. 🇸🇳♥️ Full 35-minute video on my website and YouTube. 🔗 Link in bio
* For the drummers: the beat is NOT where you think it is. Where do you feel the pulse?
🎥 @rshneck 👑
🇸🇳 LAAMB 🇸🇳 My new album with my teacher, master drummer Aly Ndiaye Rose, is out today. The album focuses on the rhythms of traditional Senegalese wrestling of the Serere people and is now available on all streaming platforms, alongside a full-length video on my website and YouTube (🔗 link in my bio)
Special thanks to my teacher Aly Ndiaye Rose and his family, Ran Shneck for filming the album recordings, Or Ben Zrihen for additional filming and the cover photo, and to the Senegalese people and culture 🇸🇳🙏🏽❤️
Visit my website for the full video, credits and story
#senegal #laamb #mbalax #sabar
🇸🇳 LAAMB 🇸🇳
New creation coming out next week. 7 years ago, I wrote in my notebook that one day I would release an album dedicated to one of Senegal’s most powerful cultural traditions, Laamb, traditional Senegalese wrestling.
After years of research and deep study with my teacher Aly Ndiaye Rose, that idea became reality. We recorded the album together with his family drummers, focusing on Laamb rhythms, alongside a full video documentation of the session.
Release date: Friday, May 8
Join my newsletter to receive it 🔗 LINK IN BIO
More about the story, musicians involved, and process soon.
—
Cover photo - @orbenzri
Cover design - @rshneck
Captured this moment just before leaving Palling (Germany), after spending meaningful time with close friends and a beautiful community.
Grateful to have friends all over the world with whom I can experience different cultures, languages, and ways of being.
When the reality back home is too hard to hold, these connections remind me of what is possible and still alive.
Special thanks @raphaelravanu & @navakala.music
Video @benjawede
This melody came to me two years ago in Barcelona. I recently recorded it in Senegal, and yesterday I added a pipe organ to accompany it.
This piece is part of my next big project, coming soon with my brother Baye Dame. It’s about bringing together people from different religions and cultures to connect on a higher level.
If you want to hear it first when it’s out, join my newsletter through the link in my bio.
I’m also happy to share my signature xalam, created in collaboration with master builder Abdoulaye Diop in Senegal 🇸🇳 DM for more.
Playing tonight at St. Concordia Church in Ruhla, Germany. I have been waiting for this concert for a while.
I first got in touch with the church’s pastor, Gerhard Reuther, a few years ago, learning about his project supporting the education of children in Rwanda. Over the years, we built a real connection and friendship, even though we had never met in person.
Now he is retiring, and I told him I wanted to come and play for him personally. We also arranged a pipe organ recording session for my project in Senegal, bringing together Sufi Muslims and Christians. Gerhard has also supported this project through the church, and I will share more about it in the coming months.
These kinds of concerts, built on real human connection, carry a different meaning. That is what I am searching for at this stage of my life.
