At her debut at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Ami Taf Ra didn’t just perform — she created a space that felt bigger than the room itself. Rooted in spiritual jazz and shaped by her Moroccan heritage, the North African, LA-based singer-songwriter showed herself as an artist with a clear vision and a strong sense of purpose.
The evening centred around her debut album The Prophet and the Madman, a project developed during the pandemic with producer and collaborator Kamasi Washington. Together, they spent time with the work of Khalil Gibran, especially The Prophet and The Madman. Rather than simply referencing his writing, they treated it as something to respond to — turning his words into sound and feeling.
The set moved through songs including God, The Prophet, Love, Gnawa, and My Friend, the latter originally featuring Brandon Coleman. Performed live, My Friend carried a quiet honesty, with the line “my friend, I am not what I seem, for seeming is but a garment I wear” staying with the audience.
One of the most powerful moments of the night came with Love, which originally features Ryan Porter. Ami sang in both English and Arabic, and even without understanding every word, the emotion came through clearly. As she sang, “when love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard…”, her voice and movement made the meaning feel real. The Arabic chorus added another layer, giving the performance a spiritual depth that connected strongly with the room.
There was also something meaningful in seeing an all-Black band on stage, many wearing natural afros. It was a quiet but important kind of visibility, especially in how it reflected Black Moroccan identity. That connection carried through the music too. In Gnawa, Ami took a moment to explain the tradition — a Moroccan spiritual sound rooted in the history of enslaved Sub-Saharan Africans, built on rhythm, repetition, and trance. The performance felt grounding and transportive at the same time. It was one of several moments during the night that felt not just musical, but educational — offering the audience context, history, and care alongside the sound.
The album itself reflects influences from the Black Jazz Records era, bringing to mind artists like Doug Carn and Jean Carn. Like them, Ami Taf Ra uses jazz as a way to explore bigger ideas, blending sound, history, and spirituality.
Later, she performed Speak to Us, a piece that felt reflective and calm. Throughout the night, Ami kept returning to the idea of love — not just as a feeling, but as something that guides how we live. She spoke about love letters between Khalil Gibran and Mary Haskell, reflecting on how their connection, even from a distance, shaped his writing. As she put it: “when you read the book it gives you a little insight behind his inspiration, of his writing, all of these years — this is love.”. These words reminded me that, even though the letters were written a long time ago, and even when relating to music we may never meet the artist who makes such music, we can still feel the power of their work, through the beauty of love.
You can catch Ami Taf Ra next at the Jazzablanca Festival in Morocco on 10th July.
Words by Kanika Phillip