Gift of the Gnawa

Adam Rudolph, Hassan Hakmoun | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 2, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rounder Records
• ASIN: B000000MRP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,433 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > World Music > Africa > Morocco

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moroccan Groove, May 22, 2005

By 

Charles Koeppen (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gift of the Gnawa (Audio CD)

This is some amazing music. Hassan Hakmoun plays an African bass and sings along with some fine conga and tabla drum rhythms integrated with Arabic flute and the psychedelic sound of Don Cherry's heavily reverbed trumpet. Morocco, although an African country, is known for it's middle-Eastern culture. Hassan Hakmoun comes from a sub-culture that already assimilated both African and middle-Eastern influences into its music. At times on this CD there are flowing middle-Eastern melodies played on a ney flute in unison with Hassan's vocals and at others the vocals are reminiscent of African call and response. With the addition of Don Cherry's trumpet Hassan Hakmoun manages to bring the sensibilities of several cultures together on this CD. In fact, from a short conversation with him, this appears to be what he loves to do because he says he finds it beautiful how music brings people together. This CD is a labor of love and it shows. If this music doesn't take you someplace, try again. It's flight proven.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what can you say about something like this?, April 21, 2006

By 

leo (Beijing, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gift of the Gnawa (Audio CD)

other than that it is what happens when honest and talented individuals get together and extend themselves in the joy of creation? as the other reviewers have mentioned, this is testament to the possibility of successful fusion (all of those United Colors cliches come to mind, but without the irony or jaded sarcasm).

I like the tracks with flutes better than the others, but that may be purely a personal thing.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars African World Music With A Twist, October 31, 2000

By 

Scott Woods (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gift of the Gnawa (Audio CD)

This CD is the precursor for all these New Age records and "The Insider"/"Three Seasons" soundtrack phenomenon, where world instrumentation is smashed together with Western sensibilities to essentially create a sometimes good ("Three Seasons"), sometimes bad ("The General's Daughter", most of the Deep Forest records) mix of musical flavors.

This CD is better than most attempts at this in that it starts from a foundation and obvious respect for what African (in this case specifically, Morocco) music IS, not what it can add to house beats or a slowed down "Funky Drummer" loop. The music features the playing and singing of Hassan Hakmoun, an incredibly rich and fascinating African singer, and is then run through reverbs and delays to really punch up the other-worldness of the whole project. THEN, to make things even more interesting, current hot soundtrack maven Richard Horowitz ("Three Seasons", etc.) plays African percussion alongside jazz man Don Cherry, who does some incredible playing off of Hakmoun's singing.

For people who already have an appreciation of world music, but probably a little too down-to-earth for the New Age crowd.