The ticket page describes Lala Tamar as “what happens when Moroccan soul and Brazilian beats meet on the dancefloor” — accurate, as far as that phrase can travel. What it doesn’t convey is the genealogical weight behind the combination. She sings in Arabic, Amazigh, and Portuguese, languages that trace a specific arc through North African diaspora. Yacouba Sissoko carries a tradition of kora playing and Djeli storytelling from Mali whose roots predate the recording industry entirely. On Saturday, August 8, both artists share the Indigo Room at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.
About the Show
Born in Israel’s Galilee to Brazilian-Moroccan parents, Lala Tamar has spent years excavating and reactivating a heritage most audiences have never encountered. She was the first artist to record a contemporary album in Haquetia, the Judeo-Spanish dialect spoken among the Jews of Spanish Morocco — a project that required working through ethnographic recordings in the National Archive in Jerusalem and painstakingly transcribing lyrics to bring the language into contemporary form. She is also among the first women to introduce the guimbri, a North African instrument tied to gnawa trance and healing ceremony, into new musical contexts. Her ensemble draws on Saharan caravan sounds, shaabi grooves, Arab ornamentations, and Brazilian rhythms. Her most recent releases include DAK LHBIB and ACHKID AYLLI (2025). Her Lincoln Center debut sold out.
Yacouba Sissoko’s lineage is equally specific. Born in Kita, Mali, to a prominent Djeli family (West African musical storytellers whose role is to preserve history through performance), he began learning kora from his grandfather at nine and was touring Mali with family stories by fifteen. His grandfather, Samakoun Tounkara, was honored by Mali’s president for his mastery of the instrument; his mother, Oumou Tounkara, sang with the Ensemble National du Mali. Sissoko studied at the National Institute of the Arts in Bamako, moved to the United States in 1998, and has since performed and recorded with Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Regina Carter, and Baaba Maal. The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall selected him as a Teaching Artist in 2007. He performs this evening with his band SIYA.
Venue & Logistics
The Mahaiwe presents this show in its Indigo Room at 20 Castle Street, Great Barrington — café table seating on the Hudson Valley concert calendar. The show begins at 5:30 p.m. and runs through 7:00 p.m.
Tickets
General admission is $43, plus processing fees. Tickets are on sale now. Get Tickets