A certain idea of trance. As practiced by the Gnaouas in Morocco, the country where Aziz Sahmaoui was born in the early 60s. As he practices it today within the University of Gnawa, his group founded ten years ago, a sum of all his experiences but also and always a work in progress. A free university created with a bunch of musicians to offer an extraordinarily nervous mix of Gnawa rock, Arabo-Andalusian chaâbi, free jazz, Berber songs carried by Aziz Sahmaoui’s splendid voice, and Senegalese drum rhythms.
If his name is not necessarily evocative for the general public, the name of his first band is much more. Aziz Sahmaoui is one of the leading musicians of the Orchestre National de Barbès, formed in the mid-90s. Paris was in the middle of a rai wave, but the ONB also infused reggae, pop, and rock. This gives it a unique character. Jazz enters the dance with the arrival of Aziz Sahmaoui in the Syndicate of Joe Zawinul, brilliant pianist of Miles Davis and founder of Weather Report. The free jazz perspectives fascinate the musician. It was at this time that the idea of the University of Gnawa was born, with the idea of reconciling jazz, rock and gnawa. The producer-discoverer Martin Meissonnier, already an accomplice of the ONB adventure, helped him to make the project succeed. The free universities of the Gnawa celebrated their tenth anniversary last year.
An evening in co-production with the
Copyright © Thomas Dorn
Aziz Sahmaoui : lead
Alioune Wade : bass
Adhil Mirgani : percussions
Amen Viana : guitar
Cheikh Diallo : keyboards
Jon Grandcamp : drums
