University of Gnawa

Aziz Sahmaoui is a marakchi – not a broad-brimmed crooner of Mexican love songs, but a native of Marrakech in Morocco. He came to France in the early 80s and helped to found Orchestre National de Barbes, one of the hippest and most influential groups in the history of North African pop. Since ONB’s heyday in the 90s, Sahmaoui has toured and recorded with Joe Zawinul amongst many others. Now he’s stepping out on his own.

There’s not only passion aplenty but a lifetime of curiosity and learning on this debut album. The erudite Sahmaoui has mixed together his own Gnawa culture, his passion for all things rootsy and West African, his love of jazz and a penchant for the gutsy pile-driving rhythms that were ONB’s signature, into an intelligent coherent whole. Sahelian ngoni lutes weave in and out of skittering Moroccan qaraqab (metal castanets) over booming gimbris and bass guitar, swooping strings, driving drums, rousing backing vocals and rocking guitars. Over this polyglot stew, Sahmaoui’s precise and powerful voice hollers out messages of honesty and peace. With the help of a tight backing band of premier-league Moroccan and Senegalese musicians, Sahmaoui manages to achieve that balance of raw power and subtle sophistication that eludes so many jazz-obsessed North African musicians. The veteran French producer, Martin Meissonier, no doubt had a hand in this artful trapeze act, but Sahmaoui himself exudes a creativity, passion and experience that leads one to suspect he’s busily navigating his talent towards a very bright future.