Hassan Hakmoun was born in Marrakech in 1963. At the age of seven he began performing tagnawit, the Gnawa related arts and lore, under local Gnawa Masters. Starting with a few dances and songs, he gradually moved on to learn drumming, sintir playing ( sintir is a three-stringed long-necked lute), litanies, chants, costume and knowledge of the spirits. Hakmoun began to play for the Derdeba (Gnawa ceremony), which can last from ten in the evening into the next day. It is believed to release spirits that have inhabited a person or place.
At fourteen, Hakmoun left school to pursue a less formal education on the road. He traveled throughout Morocco, Spain and through all of Europe, learning from his experiences and from the Gnawa masters he visited on his journey. Returning to Marrakech, Hakmoun continued to work as a Gnawa, performing as an entertainer on Jamaa el-Fna, the town square and working as a m'allem (master musician) in the Derdeba. Along with other young musicians in Marrakech, he has begun to broaden the repertory of Gnawa entertainment songs by performing Arab and Berber tunes in the Gnawa style.
Whether onstage, or visiting with friends in a small apartment, as Hakmoun sings and plays himself into a trance, people around him seem not too far from a trance-like state themselves. The pentatonic scale and driving rhythm of the Sintir are instantly appealing and familiar to Western audiences; music of the Gnawa, like much American popular music, is built from elements borrowed from West Africa. Clawhammer banjo enthusiasts will also find commonality in the percussive style of plucking the Sintir.
Hakmoun made his U.S. debut in 1987 at Lincoln Center and has been living in New York City ever since.In 1989, Hassan made his television Debut on David Sanborn Show "NIGHT MUSIC", sharing the stage with Miles Davis. He performed at Woodstock '94 and on the WOMAD '94 tour. Hakmoun was also a guest on Jay Leno's "TONIGHT'S SHOW" in 1994. Besides performing traditional Gnawa music he has performed and recorded with jazz musicians such as Don Cherry and Adam Rudolph, pop stars like Peter Gabriel and Paula Cole, and world beat artists like Jamshied Sharifi and many more.
In the year 1999, Hassan moved from New York to Los Angeles. He was married to pop singer Paula Cole, and had a baby girl, "Sky Hakmoun".
They moved back to NYC in 2005, a year following their return to NYC, Hassan filed for divorce and after fighting 2 1/2 long,hard and devastating years,now,2009, Hassan has begun altogether new projects.
His new album and has also opened his own Restaurant in the East Village in NYC. The name??? Of course, "Sintir", after his instrument. Running the show with Hassan, his Fiancee/his manager, Cindy Comoli.
Hassan Hakmoun presents The Gift on Triloka Records
Moroccan Gnawa Master Musician Uproots the Past, Fuses with the Future
North Africa has long been a crossroads. The Gnawa people of Morocco descend from slaves from West Africa, but they claim spiritual descent from Bilal al-Habashi, an Ethiopian who was the Prophet Mohammed's first muezzin (caller to prayer). Gnawa music’s integration of African rhythms and sensibility has been compared to the Blues and Santeria. But the Arabic context produced a unique sound. Not until Hassan Hakmoun’s upcoming CD, The Gift, on Triloka Records (May 7, 2002) has the Arabic milieu of Gnawa been musically brought to the fore.
Hassan Hakmoun has street smarts. By age four, he performed alongside snake charmers and fire-breathers on Marrakech streets. His mother is known throughout the city as a mystic healer. Her derdeba trance ceremonies are all-night affairs where hypnotic playing and chanting exorcise evil spirits. This musical form, steeped in Islamic mysticism and West African rhythms, lifts the spirit and heals the wounded with songs of praise. Out of these origins came an emissary infused with Gnawa music as well as rock and funk.
The night before, he had met composer Richard Horowitz, who came to his aid with a place to stay and a gig at a Moroccan restaurant on Bleecker Street. That night established the seeds of many years to come. The unknowing diners were soon ecstatically dancing instead of eating. A New York Times writer was dining there and began the buzz that led Hakmoun to the US stage as a premier world musician on par with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (they were the first signed to Peter Gabriel’s Real World label). As fans lined up to praise Hakmoun, he disappeared again, this time with a waitress whose marriage soon became his legal passage to this land of dreams.
Hakmoun has resided in the US ever since. The pentatonic scale and driving rhythms of the sintir, a three-stringed long-necked African bass lute, are instantly appealing to many Western ears, and Hakmoun, has succeeded in presenting this music outside of Morocco to widespread critical acclaim. He was the only world musician invited to play Woodstock ’94, and has performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and on the WOMAD ’94 tour. Hakmoun became a regular fixture in New York’s rock, jazz, and fusion scenes, and earned his following for spanning multiple genres with his spiritually charged voice and playing.
The Gift teams Hakmoun with American-born producer Fabian Alsultany. The two have tackled the landmark task of bridging Gnawa with Arabic music while maintaining a forward-looking sound. Alsultany recruited over a hundred musicians to fill out the sound with strings as is common in popular Arabic music. The CD breaks new ground with a widely popular Arabic song, "Layla Layla" (without which no Arabic wedding is complete), which is unheard of from a Gnawa musician. Hakmoun carries the healing tradition to a wider audience with the life affirming single, "This Gift," a remarkable and timely duet with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole, with whom he fell in love while recording this song. The two now have a four-month old baby.
The new Triloka release and a 2002 late summer/fall tour return Hassan Hakmoun to the world’s eyes and ears. Drawing deeply on an intensely spiritual and ancient tradition, listeners will move their bodies and souls to the sounds of The Gift.
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