Mohama Saz is such an interesting group. They’re from Madrid and this was my third time seeing them. I don’t know how to describe them. The best way I can describe them is “hypnotic” or “mesmerizing”. They’re a very different type of group from what I’m used to. From their website, www.mohamasaz.com, “music is expression, not repetition of patterns, it is emotion and not academicism. Mohama Saz’s music is presented as an explosion of sounds, from psychedelia to spiritual jazz, from rock to Andalusian folklore. All this enriched with the sounds and rhythms of Eastern Europe, mainly Turkey, but also North Africa or even Andean America. But be careful, this is not fusion, it is Mohama Saz.”
Their “guitarist”, Javier, plays an instrument called “baglama” or “saz” which is from a family of plucked string instruments from Turkey. He plays a custom made version because the normal instrument has a very big ball at the end of it and it’s difficult him to play it. Not to mention that the traditional baglama doesn’t pair well with pedals to get the sounds he wants. So he had a custom version of it made. The typical instrument has 7 strings divided into courses of 2, 2, and 3, but his version is five strings, 2, 1, 2. But all the technique, the way he plays it, is like a traditional baglama saz.
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