BRIC is an arts and media organization that presents and incubates creative artists in Brooklyn. Major productions include BRIC JazzFest, and the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn summer performing arts festival.
Latin Culture at BRIC
OCTOBER
Jazz Festival
BRIC JazzFest on its opening night presents jazz trumpeter Chief Adjuah, Adrian Younge, South African jazz vocalist Yuyo Sotashe & Chris Pattishall, Moroccan electronic Gnawa group Saha Gnawa, Ethiopian jazz singer Meklit Hadero, and Israeli blues guitarist Dida Pelled at BRIC House in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; on Friday, October 17, 2025, with 5:30pm doors. From $63. 🇺🇸 🇪🇹 🇮🇱 🇲🇦 🇿🇦
I really like Saha Gnawa. The blues, the root of most American popular music originates in North Africa. Many elements of Saha Gnawa’s music strike a chord with blues and Caribbean music fans. There is the opening percussion just like in Puerto Rican bomba and Cuban rumba. There is melisma, the vocal run done on a single note. It mimics the call to prayer which survives in the Caribbean as the diana, the entry to a salsa song. Bad Bunny’s “eh eh” is a minimalist form. The Muslim influence remains present in the Caribbean (On the islands, some locals greet me in Arabic because they were taught at home to pray). There’s the droning sound which is a signature of spiritual music. The drone is one of the ways you know whether the music is for a ceremony or a party. There’s a simple baseline played on a guitar-like instrument that sounds like the marimbula, which is a Caribbean bass version of the kalimba or mbira, the South African Shona finger piano. There is the call and response which is so familiar to Americans. These are our roots.
BRIC JazzFest on its closing night presents jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater Quartet, British saxophonist Nubya Garcia, psychedelic soul singer Adrian Younge, Detroit jazz bassist Endea Owens & The Cookout, jazz drummer Karriem Riggins, Afro-Cuban alternative group OKAN, and the New Jazz Underground; at BRIC House in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; on Saturday, October 18, 2025, with 6pm doors. From $62. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇨🇺
There is a closing night Jam Session at 11pm for $36.
About BRIC
BRIC is a leading Brooklyn arts and media institution. Its home, BRIC House, has a public media center, art gallery, two performance spaces, a TV studio, and artist work spaces. The venue’s name may remind New Yorkers of a certain age of the classic Commodores disco song “Brick House.”
Social Media
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BlueSky @bricbrooklyn.bsky.social
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Get Tickets
BRIC
647 Fulton St
(at Rockwell Pl)
Fort Greene, Brooklyn