Read about El Gusto in the New York Times!

By Elaine Sciolino // Published: October 12, 2012

PARIS — The musicians of the Casbah of old Algiers were bent and broken by history. The bars and cafes that flourished under French colonial rule were their livelihood, so the war that brought independence in 1962 meant the end of their way of life — and of their distinctive music.

The Jews among them fled to France, never to return. Muslim residents of the Casbah, the crumbling, old, lower- and working-class neighborhood, were relocated by the new Algerian government to housing developments on the outskirts of the city.

The musicians lost contact. The Algerian version of the popular Arabic-language music known as chaabi was forgotten.

Now, 50 years later, they are together again. On the evening of Sept. 30, 20 of them bewitched an audience of 900 in the outdoor courtyard of the Museum of the Art and History of Judaism in the heart of the Marais neighborhood here…{read more}

Flamenco Sketches by Evans/Davis played by Greg Lloyd. www.greglloydmusic.com from Greg Lloyd on Vimeo.

I also worked with Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) which led to the music I helped to orchestrate appearing on BBC 1 on the Jools Holland show ‘Later’. These Algerian musicians had a genre of music that has been missing since 1962 as the music was only performed at musicians homes and private parties, until now.  The film reunites the music and the French and Algerian Jewish and Muslim Chaabi musicians.

Check out the El Gusto website here.

Variety Magazine Review

Hollywood Reporter Review

Tribeca Film Guide 2012

Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012

Review // Paddy Kehoe

Irish-Australian pianist Greg Lloyd divides his time between Ireland, where he has kept a base for the past 11 years, and regular periods in New York. His very fine debut album draws on a range of diverse influences, with a distinct Latin feel throughout. Eddie McGinn’s percussion on a lengthily-titled Algerian Chaabi sequence remains understated and nothing goes into overdrive on this most subtle of records. That latter track may be Algerian but the listener will discern in Lloyd’s treatment a certain Flamenco touch, which music owes so much to North Africa anyway. There you have your Latin theme once again, in a roundabout way, as it were.

The opener, Uzak, is a Lloyd-penned exercise a la Cubana. It is a tribute to the pianist that he can make something original and authentically salsa, at least to these untutored ears. Extending the Latin tendency, he does a short cover version of the South American standard Bésame Mucho, which is kind of gone before you have noticed.

Lloyd’s intuitive title track, Long Way Home has a ruminative, mellow texture, winding around a repetitive trope, somewhat reminiscent of the Tord Gustavson Trio. Lloyd and his cohorts(Kevin Brady on drums and double bassist Dave Redmond) conjure a pale, wistful mood.

Chew The Fat races on energetically, talking to itself in a sort of blues shuffle. Then comes the sun-dappled, dreamy Danny. The vigorous, up-tempo Rue de Seine sees Brady giving the drums relatively more welly than on the rest of record. But he still doesn’t sound remotely like John Bonham. This excellent debut repays repeated listenings and, if there is any justice, should bring Lloyd to a global jazz audience.