Dec 11/05
Gnawa revival
So it’s been a month since my last post. I’m back, I’m still here, the music keeps piling up.
Last weekend I got a bunch of my friends to join in a trip up to Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb northeast of Paris, to see a Moroccan gnawa concert by Hmida Boussou. As many of you already know, Clichy-sous-Bois was the original flashpoint for the recent riot troubles in France. The point of the trip was then two-fold: to check-out this place so badly portrayed in the media as a centre of racial hatred and burning cars, and to listen to some great live gnawa music from down in Essaouira.
As expected, Clichy-sous-Bois’ downtown turned out to be a quiet little French town much like any other Parisian suburb. That said, we weren’t in the middle of the cités but as one Clichy-sous-Bois resident put it, “this isn’t Chechnya.” It’s actually a nice little place that’s a pain in the ass to access using public transport at night. The Boussou concert was part of the ongoing Afrocolor festival in the suburbs of Paris. I’ve been busy with work, life and travel so I haven’t been able to check-out any of the other shows, but the programme is impressive and the festival is quite well-organized.
The Gnawa are a sufi Islamic brotherhood from southern Morocco (around Marrakesh and Essaouira) who use music, rhythm and dance to heal and entrance their followers. Gnawa music has become sort of trendy in Western culture this last while which is why I ask myself, isn’t track 5 on the Cowboy Bebop sountrack a gnawa song? Does anyone know anything about it? Song posted below.
Anyway, the Hmida Boussou concert was great. He’s a well-known Gnawa musician back home and if my armchair Google research is any indication he commands a far-reaching and good reputation. At the show everyone was rockin’ out to the rhythms and an entranced fan or two even hit a trance and dropped to their knees on stage. Definitely worth the RER. I picked-up his CD called Les Fils de Bambara on the way out – don’t think you can buy it in stores.
Hmida Boussou – Les Fils de Bambara
Seatbelts – Musawe
December 12th, 2005 at 01:59
Thank you, Matt, for still another illuminating post. Benn Loxo… is much a personal favorite.
Wanted to ensure that you hadn’t missed this recent Gnaoan post, with downloadable lp, on my own page:
http://permanentcondition.blogspot.com/2005/11/reebop-kwaku-baah-ganoua-trance.html
December 12th, 2005 at 03:21
the seatbelts albums are all unspeakably diverse. so i wouldn’t say that that track serves as evidence that the musical idiom in question has become “trendy” recently
(plus, japan isn’t western culture! tee hee.)
while i’m here, i should mention that The Seatbelts are one of the greatest “bands” ever to play on this planet.
along with Africa 70, and james brown’s entourage.
all of these groups are truly something other than small discrete “bands”, but still.
December 12th, 2005 at 05:50
I first learned about Gnawa music from Hassan Hakmoun, a musician from Marrakesh, Morocco who plays the sintar, a type of lute with a camel skin face that sounds like an organic version of the electric bass. I met him in 1994, not long after he released an album called Trance for Real World. This portion of my interview with him may cast more light on Gnawa…
Q: Can you tell me something about the sintir? How did you learn to play it?
HH: “Sin-teer.”
Q: Forgive me if I pronounce these words wrong.
HH: It’s okay. It’s not your language. The same thing here with me. Sometimes I say a word with the wrong accent and get myself in trouble. The way I learned to play the sintir, I was 5 years old and my mother was a trance dance Gnawa musician and she used to bring the Gnawa to perform at home for ceremony nights. I used to watch them and then I got involved with another family who were Gnawa. They had children my age so we I used to go to performances with them all the time. At the age of 14 I became a master. I played sintar, danced, and sang and learned all the kinds of Gnawa music around Morocco.
Q: Who or what are the Gnawa?
HH: Gnawa is the music and the people are called Gnawa. It’s in the Banbera language. They come from West Africa to North Africa 500 years agom brought as slaves to work for the King of Morocco. When they come they brought the music with them called the Gnawa. It’s spiritual trance music. It’s used for healing and for people who need help. It’s like medicine. That’s what the music is used for in Morocco, to heal people and to make them feel good. If someone is sick we do a ceremony and trance dance for the person, sing religious songs and things like that. When we finish the person will feel better.
Q: You combine this traditional music with modern. How does that work?
HH: There’s not many changes on it. It’s just a different presentation. It’s just like a kid growing up. The traditional is modern to me. You have to make it speed up. You know what I mean?
Q: You mean like using a traditional melody but with a faster rhythm?
HH: It’s faster and the style and balance are different. Since I was 14, I’ve been working on these changes. I’m doing this because I want to reach a lot of different audiences and I want them to know about the music. It’s very hard to get everybody to listen to your kind of music. You have to give the music to them the way they want to hear it.
Q: Does it retain its message?
HH: Yeah, man. Even in Morocco everybody knows the Gnawa. It’s very popular now. But some people who have reached outside of the country and have been listening to other stuff would not be interested to hear it. But when you mix it and change it they will accept it. They’ll want to know more about it, where it comes from. I want a lot of people around the world to know about the music of my people. Going back in history, they passed through a lot during slavery. The music never reached nowhere. I’m doing it so the music will be popular and the people will be getting something from it.
Q: Do you think that Western culture could take over from the traditional? Could Gnawa music disappear?
Q: No, no, no. You’re never going to lose the traditional music. When you play it people want to know where it comes from. You say, “It comes from North Africa and before that from West Africa played by the Gnawa.” They say, “Okay let’s find the original.” It’s like you have an envelope but you have to put a stamp on it for it to arrive. That’s what I’m doing I’m using this kind of music to make the music arrive somewhere.
December 12th, 2005 at 11:13
Thanks for this great site Matt. You’ve introduced me to some amazing music…
I am about to visit morocco in a weeks time and i’ve developed a growing fascination for Gnawa music.
Does anyone know where in Essaouira or Marrakech you can hear the music live?
December 13th, 2005 at 00:44
Matt
the Seabelts track is definitely gnawa
You can hear the gembre and the lyrics are welcoming praises to sidi Mustafa the prophet
I Didn’t recognise the voice and as I don’t know anything about Seabelts I don’t how they did the connection with the gnawa.
I’ve heard from non gnawa moroccans that the name gnawa commes from Guinaoui; that means “from Guinea” as Africa was called back then by the Portuguese
Blessings for your site and your wide open ears
B
December 14th, 2005 at 17:15
[...] Africa’s favorite music blog, Benn loxo du taccu returns to Clichy-sous-Bois (Paris riots!) to watch a Gnawa concert by Moroccan musician Hmida Boussou.…”The point of the trip was then two-fold: to check-out this place so badly portrayed in the media as a centre of racial hatred and burning cars, and to listen to some great live gnawa music from down in Essaouira.” [...]
December 15th, 2005 at 23:34
by the way, here’s a slight bit of information about the track from Cowboy Bebop:
http://www.jazzmess.com/merch/cds/movie/musawe.html
music by: Yoko Kanno
vocals: Hassan Bohmide
musicians:
* centire – Hassan Bohmide
* saxophone – Honda Masato
info: This is another Hassan Bohmide vocal piece for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Rather than being a jazz/middle eastern hybrid like Hamduche, this song empasises the middle eastern sound.
episodes: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
(yoko kanno is truly amazing, and as a composer rivals fela kuti and nobuo uematsu in their greatness. BUT, i don’t know how much of a hand she herself had in “composing” MUSAWE. )
December 19th, 2005 at 17:31
Hey, Matt, glad to see you’re back. This blog is probaly the most interesting / useful site on African music out there.
November 5th, 2006 at 01:16
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
October 24th, 2007 at 22:46
Thanks for the informations about gnawa and middle eastern music,I am totally interested in that kind of music as well. One of the tracks that has the greatest influence on me from Cowvboy Bebop SNDTRCK is ‘Hamduche’, which is the mix of middle-eastern and jazz sounds and that makes this song very unique, I think. However, every time I hear the song the same question comes into my mind: What does the singer (Hassan Bohmide) say in that song? What does the lyrics mean?I think it is very important to know the lyrics, especially in middle eastern songs in order to get into the atmosphere of the song and understand feelings and thoughts of the composer. Anyone knows about the meaning of the lyrics of ‘Hamduche’? If so, could you please post it?
February 18th, 2008 at 03:00
I once talked to a Maroccan about the song, Hamaduche, and he said that the song is about honoring Allah.
I shall look for some Gnawa right now!
June 24th, 2008 at 00:44
Hmm.. Interesting.. I’ve been looking for its full lyrics in other sites but I still cannot find it.. But thanks anyway Emil
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:43
My marrocan muay thai teacher loosely translated the content of Hamduche’s text this very morning. It’s supposedly about someone begging for his father, who left him. Although I suppose ‘father’ could be a reference to Allah.
The musical context is Marrocan with Andalusian sound influences.