GNAWA MUSIC

Hassan Hakmoun, a Gnawi musician from Marrakech, Morocco recently performed at Los Angeles' premiere nightclub, The House of Blues. Having followed his career from his days as a struggling musician in New York, seven years before, I was curious to see how Los Angeles would respond to the traditional sounds of Moroccan healing music. What I found surprised me -- a six-member band, replete with a jazz horn section that mixed Western and Eastern sounds. It was a blend that could be described as an Arabic version of a great Memphis rhythm section, combined with the sounds of Wynton Marsalis.

The audience, a mix of record producers, New Age types and world music lovers, enthusiastically shook their hips in a game attempt at Arabic dance. Hakmoun's music was commercialized, making it more accessible to Western audiences, but still present was the distinctive sound from Marrakech -- the trance-like beat mixing deep bass lines with the soaring voice of the Gnawa.

Entertainers who have performed for centuries in Marrakech's main square, the Jamaa El-Fna, Gnawans can be found among the snake charmers and storytellers, the hustlers and tourists. Brought to Morocco about 500 years ago as slaves from West Africa, the Gnawans have occupied an important place in Marrakech history. Their music is trance music, and their primary role is as intermediaries in the spirit world. Playing a combination of drums, (tbel) castanets (qaraqeb) and a Gnawi lute (sintir), they make mind altering, rhythm-based music that also rousts the spirits (djin).

If a Moroccan family wants to purge an evil spirit that has brought illness or infertility, or prolong a relationship with a spirit that has brought wealth or good luck, they hold Gnawa ceremonies (derdeba). In gatherings that sometimes last up to ten hours, Gnawan musicians are invited into their homes to play a series of songs to communicate with the spirits. When a participant goes into a trance, it's a sign the spirit has responded, and the family will burn spices and incense to maintain the trance. After long hours of song and dance, when it's evident that all the participants - both visible and invisible -- have been satisfied, the musicians wind down their music, bringing them back into the everyday world.

Jazz pianist Randy Weston has long been an admirer of Gnawan music, having lived in Morocco many years. He has both collaborated with Gnawan musicians on stage in the United States and recorded with them, giving the music a unique exposure among the jazz community. One of the musicians he has worked with in the past is Hassan Hakmoun, who today, at age 32, is considered one of the world's finest Gnawi performers. Certainly he is among the best known Gnawans, having recorded at least three CDs and performed internationally in Peter Gabriel's international festival of music, the WOMAD Festival.

Hassan, who got his start in New York performing in Moroccan restaurants on Manhattan's Bleecker Street, has been an excellent ambassador of the art form. At age seven he began studying the tagnawit, the Gnawa-related arts and lore, and at age 14 left Morocco to pursue a more exciting education on the road. Arriving in New York in his mid-20s, Hakmoun has not only been engaged in exposing American audiences to the culture of the Gnawa, but also in cross-pollinating Gnawan music with rock, blues and funk through his world beat band, Zahar. One of his best known collaborations has been with American composer and percussionist Adam Rudolph, and together they recorded the CD "Gift of the Gnawi" in 1991. The Los Angeles-based Rudolph was on stage with Hakmoun at his House of Blues debut, where a music powerful enough to appease angry spirits, put to rest, for those two hours at least, the demons that haunt us all.