As Chaâbane winds down, here's some Gnawa music for you, before Ramadan arrives.
One of two Gnawa tapes I picked up in 1999 in Meknes, this is credited to "Hamid Laguenawi" (Hamid the Gnawi). The other tape is credited to a Hamid al-Hadri, and at one point I wondered if they were the same musician. I just compared them, and they sound nothing like each other - neither the voice nor the guinbri playing. What was I thinking?
Like my other Meknassi tape, this one features songs from the Ouled Bambara suite that opens the Gnawa lila ceremony. In fact, the sequence of songs on the 2 tapes is identical from "Fangoro Fangoro" forward. This suggests to me that this is the typical order of songs in the Meknes lila. (The sequence is different in several ways from the sequence I know from Marrakech.)
Thanks, everyone, for visiting the stash. I'm not sure if I'll be posting during Ramadan, so it may be a few weeks before I'm back here. Best Wishes for a magical summer. And to those of you observing Ramadan, may it be a time of reflection, insight, and inspiration.
Hamid Laguenawi - Sawt el Ismailia 30
Habib el Mal (includes Zid el Mal, Ye Lalla Ya Bungra)
Hard days in the music blogosphere. Sad to find the great Holy Warbles took a hit, though I have no doubt that the Owl will rise again! Hope I can continue sharing with you here. I try to keep my posts to music that is out of print and/or impossible to find. Thanks Gary at Bodega Pop for his thoughtful and passionate comments.
Carrying on with another Gnawa cassette for ya, this one picked up in Meknes c.1999. In the popular imagination (within Morocco and without...) Gnawa are associated primarily with Essaouira (where they are heavily promoted/exploited by the tourist industry) and Marrakech (where they probably exist in the greatest numbers of any Moroccan city). However, Gnawa practices and the musicians who animate them can be found in cities across Morocco, from Tangier to Oujda to Merzouga to Agadir...
The Meknes Gnawa tradition is well established and well documented. It appears to be more prominent than that of neighboring Fez. Perhaps the presence in Meknes of the zawiya (shrine) of the Hadi ben Aissa, patron saint of the Aissawa brotherhood, makes Meknes more conducive to trance-music practitioners. Still, Gnawa from Meknes have rarely been featured in international or even nationwide recordings. One recent exception is Maalem Abdenbi el Meknassi.
I don't know anything about the performer here, al-Hadri Hamid, though I have another cassette from Meknes that I believe features him as well. This tape is all Ouled Bambara - that is, it features songs from the opening phase of the lila ceremony. Unusually, they are performed here with qarqaba rather than with the interlocking clapping that is typical of this phase. Some of the typical Ouled Bambara songs are featured here (Bangara Bangara, Chalaba Titara, etc.). But there are also some rarely performed pieces, including a version of Tintinbara, which traditionally features a very funny pantomime where a Gnawi dancer (male) dresses up as a pregnant woman.
8) Baniya yar kama - Allah Mitara Chkam Bambara - Wahyana waye - 'Ar Allah 'Ar N-nbi - Sadi w-Llah - Serku Balaji ya Huma - Tintinbara - Allah ya Mbwirika, Siydek rah ja (take 1)