Joudour

Bekkas has been a Gnawa fusion artist for more than three decades, founding his Gnaoua Blues Band back in 1990, and incorporating jazz into the mix – presaging the many on-stage fusions between Gnawa maalem and jazz players at Essaouira's annual Gnawa festival – and he's recorded with the likes of Joachim Kühn, with whom he's released a range of fine albums on the ACT label.

Joudour marks the 20th anniversary of his debut album, 2001's African Gnaoua Blues, and percussionist Khalid Kouhen features both on that album and this new, remotely recorded set, along with Algerian drummer Karim Ziad – one of the directors of the Essaouira festival – as well as saxophonist Manuel Hermia, Austrian pianist Michael Hornick and Childo Tomas on bass. Guest players on the rebab, ney and percussion add their textures, and the result is a rootsy Moroccan set extending into a pan-African vibe with a strong jazz pulse in the back line, over which Bekkas riffs and solos on a panoply of stringed instruments – oud, gimbri, ngoni, bouzouki, guitar – as well as balafon and kalimba. ‘Allal’ is one of the rootsiest, rawest pieces, augmented by Ziad's easy swing, while ‘Sahara Tnadi’ is reminiscent of the great Nass El Ghiwane.