The Gnawa Berber (Riverboat Records/World Music Network, 2014)
Right from the outset of Simo Lagnawi’s latest The Gnawa Berber the listener is flung headlong onto the exotic soundscape that is Gnawan music. Having the recording the 2013 Gnawa London release on the Waulk Records label under his belt, Mr. Lagnawi is back this time on the Riverboat Records/World Music Network label on a recording that is both intriguing and electrifying. Drawing on his own Berber roots as well as the musical education by various Gnawan music masters, Mr. Lagnawi taps into the heady musical traditions of North Africa with powerful vocals, percussion, the hand cymbals or krakebs and the three-stringed lute or guembri that’s sure to tantalize listeners.
Dipping into the flash of krakebs, the meaty thrum of guembri and vocals, The Gnawa Berber unfolds with the fiery opening track “Bolami” before slipping into the intense chant and break-neck rhythms of “Adasoyo.” The CD is expertly recorded; listeners get a real feel of the complexity and potency of this music by being able to clearly pick out each element. Other goodies include the call and response vocals against the deep richness of guembri of “Sandika,” the delicious tapestry of “Dounia” with its intertwined fiddle work by Griselda Sanderson and potent tracks like “Hiriza Foulan” and “Bambra Soy.” Equally good is “Sma” with the addition of flute by Freya Rae and “Sahara Wiya” with guest artist Louis Bingham on banjo.
The Gnawa Berber is a dynamic listen into the trance world of Gnawan music.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
