Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa
Mazal (World Village, 2015)
Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa return for another musical dip into the fiery depths of the traditions of the Maghreb and Africa. After their self-titled 2013 release of Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa, vocalist and mandola and ngoni player Mr. Sahmaoui, along with band members bassist and vocalist Alioune Wade, guitarist and vocalist Herve Samb, percussionist and vocalist Adhil Mirghani and Rhodes, kora player and vocalist Cheikh Diallo, have expanded their sound and their repertoire for their latest Mazal out on the World Village label.
Holding hard to the hypnotic rhythms of the Gnawa musical traditions and the charms of the West African sounds, Mr. Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa seize onto the fires of rock and the complexity of jazz to transform Mazal into a grooving blend that’s not to be missed.
Mr. Sahmaoui notes, “It’s important to push the music. We have to keep experimenting, to have our musical dialogues, to keep renewing ourselves. As musicians, that’s the noblest thing we can do.”
“We have musicians from France, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal,” Mr. Sahmaoui explains. “We can exchange our ideas and sounds, take something then build on it. We all learn. It’s a very free university! Gnawa’s the root, but we’re all looking for something extraordinary and that’s what we’re trying to find by fusing these sounds together.”
With the addition of flamenco guitarist Niño Josele, saxophonist Emile Parisien, flutist Naissam Jalal, violinist Michael Nick, tar player Amar Chaoui and vocalist Rime Sahmaoui on the track “Daw Daw,” Mazal works its magic through by pulling in outside influences and enfolding them into tracks like the flamenco centered “Yasmine” and the delicious jazz infused hypnotic “Lawah-Lawah.”
From the rocking opening track “Inchallah,” through the bright and breezy, kora laced “Hada Ma Jari” to the lonely road sound of title track “Mazal,”Aziz Sahmaoui & University of Gnawa dazzle with this mix of musical pleasures. “Jalila” is savagely jazz and rock cool, as is the roughed over vocals, intricate groove of “Daw Daw.”
“Gnawa’s part of me,” says Mr. Sahmaoui. “It’s trance music from North Africa, but it’s also music that celebrates humanity, meeting and dancing. It’s a groove that lets me touch others. But on the new album it’s one color among many.”
Mazal is razor sharp, dizzyingly good and a fierce, fresh listen into the riches of Gnawa music.
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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.
