Life Around the World
Alula www.alula.com

"Allahu akbar" ("God is great"), cries Moroccan Hassan Hakmoun. With the help of a few guests like percussionist/composer Adam Rudolph and the late Don Cherry on trumpet, Hakmoun has created a rich and entrancing archive of live pieces, and this album is a collection of some of those performances.

A Gnawa (Moroccan descended from black West Africans) by birth, Hakmoun was raised in a musical milieu. He picked up the sintir (three-stringed lute) at the age of seven, and slowly learned the intricate and subtle tradition of trance music that was his inheritance. Performing in the carnival atmosphere of the celebrated Djam el Fnaa market in his native Marrakesh, he honed his skills and eventually began recording. In 1987, Hakmoun first came to the United States to perform at Lincoln Center. Twelve years and two WOMAD tours later, he has become a frequent guest artist on jazz and world music albums and even appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

There is a very powerful synergy evident in Hakmoun's interaction with his collaborators, a combination of skills and approaches that produces innovative and challenging music firmly in the Arab trance tradition. In trance music there can be spacey songs and frenzied ones. A good mid-tempo compromise is the almost country-sounding "Amoulay" with guitarist Rick Rivera. The connection between the same guitarist and the Arab musicians on "Nagcha" seems to be tenuous at times but never tumbles into the gutter of discordance. Three pieces from 1990 have a more raw feel and a driven quality. The dry flute-like ney of Richard Horowitz on "Chabakouni 1" recalls the Master Musicians of Jajouka. The three backing percussionists provide a nuanced rhythm, accelerating the tempo in a slow infectious crescendo that's hard to let go of when its six minutes are over. Life Around the World is like that, though. You think you know it, but there's always a sense of longing it leaves behind that calls for further exploration.

- Craig Tower