Aziz Sahmaoui and University of Gnawa
Paris, Île-de-France, France | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | MAJOR
Music
Press
Aziz Sahmaoui: University of Gnawa (GeneralPattern) f13.99
Study at the University
ofGnawa will liberate your mind and pull the gut strings of pure feeling through the heart.
Sahmaoui's exploration of the Gnawa cosmos is sorne of the best Gnawa you will hear -the forrn's mix of deep ghimbri bass linesand high, metallic krakek rhythms tend to defeat most microphones pointed in its direction. The trip of a lifetime.
Tim CUMMING
- The Independent UK
Aziz Sahmaoui: University of Gnawa (GeneralPattern) f13.99
Study at the University
ofGnawa will liberate your mind and pull the gut strings of pure feeling through the heart.
Sahmaoui's exploration of the Gnawa cosmos is sorne of the best Gnawa you will hear -the forrn's mix of deep ghimbri bass linesand high, metallic krakek rhythms tend to defeat most microphones pointed in its direction. The trip of a lifetime.
Tim CUMMING
- The Independent UK
Aziz Sahmaoui: University of Gnawa (GeneralPattern) f13.99
Study at the University
ofGnawa will liberate your mind and pull the gut strings of pure feeling through the heart.
Sahmaoui's exploration of the Gnawa cosmos is sorne of the best Gnawa you will hear -the forrn's mix of deep ghimbri bass linesand high, metallic krakek rhythms tend to defeat most microphones pointed in its direction. The trip of a lifetime.
Tim CUMMING
- The Independent UK
Quarante-cinq minutes pour convaincre. Cela a suffi. Avant son passage à Banlieues bleues, le 2 avril, le chanteur et musicien marocain Aziz Sahmaoui donnait un avant-goût de son premier album en ouverture de la 7e édition de Babel Med Music, à Marseille, du 24 au 26 mars. S'accompagnant d'un n'goni (le luth malien) ou d'une mandole, Aziz Sahmaoui, entouré de musiciens de haut vol (dont le guitariste Hervé Samb et le bassiste Alioune Wade), reçoit un accueil enthousiaste.
Chanteur intense, dont la bouille sympathique et le sourire doux sont déjà un atout, Aziz Sahmaoui interprète ses textes en arabe. Ils parlent d'amour et d'humanisme, de partage et d'espoir. Le monde disloqué et les faux pas des hommes ("Pourquoi il pleut des braises ?", entend-on) le consument de l'intérieur.
Aziz Sahmaoui est un rêveur. Lorsqu'il a quitté le Maroc pour la France, en 1984, c'était, affirme-t-il, "pour rencontrer les anges" - on lui avait dit que la France était le pays des anges. Il visualisait les Français blonds, costauds, et pensait pouvoir un jour "boire une bière librement en terrasse avec eux". Il ne les a toujours pas croisés.
La quête du musicien a été moins improbable que celle du rêveur égaré dans les brumes de la naïveté. En 1995, Sahmaoui participe à la formation de l'Orchestre national de Barbès (ONB). Deux albums plus tard, il s'émancipe de ce collectif à succès pour aller vers d'autres projets. Il joue avec Karim Ziad, Nguyên Lê, Sixun... Le pianiste et claviériste de jazz autrichien Joe Zawinul, mort en 2007, l'intègre à son groupe Zawinul Syndicate. Une expérience déterminante.
"Travailler avec Joe a été une école formidable, au niveau de l'écoute, de la vitesse d'exécution, de l'endurance." Zawinul lui a peut-être transmis sa précision. "Quand Aziz est venu me voir avec ses maquettes du disque, tout était calé. Il n'y avait plus qu'à faire sonner ce qu'il voulait", confie Martin Meissonnier, le producteur de l'album, qui avait invité Sahmaoui sur le dernier disque de Khaled.
Imprégné de tradition (la moitié des titres de l'album s'en inspirent), Aziz Sahmaoui trouve la voie de nouveaux métissages avec ses compagnons de route, férus, comme lui, de fusion entre jazz, funk, reggae et rythmes d'Afrique. Il aborde le chaâbi, rapproche deux styles de transe, le gnaoui et le "hit" haletant du sud de l'Atlas.
"Cela n'avait jamais été fait", affirme le musicien, motivé à rénover les genres traditionnels dans lesquels il a baigné au cours de son enfance à Marrakech. "Certaines de mes chansons étaient déjà pensées à l'époque de l'ONB, mais je préférais attendre." Les garder pour le jour où il monterait son propre projet et déciderait seul ce qu'il voulait en faire. Comme dit un proverbe arabe, rappelle le musicien : "Seuls tes ongles peuvent bien gratter ta peau." - LE MONDE / France / 31 March 2011
Discography
University of Gnawa feat Aziz Sahmaoui
(General Pattern - Naive)
Photos
Bio
Since then, Aziz Sahmaoui has graced the stages of France, Europe, North Africa,
the United States where his sound has never stopped growing. He's known in Algeria
thanks to the ONB and has become a star there because of his first solo album.
Today his music spreads its antennas as far as Egypt and Lebanon. The audiences
love him and younger musicians copy his work. It seems that Aziz was born to write:
heady choruses, an unstoppable groove and a feel for improvisation all turn his
music into an idiom of perpetual movement. If there's no groove there's nothing, he
explains. The groove means to slip into the phrasing of the other, but not to ruffle him,
just listen to him and let the rhythm grow. Everyone has their own responsibility, even
if it's rhythmically very small. The singer and multi-instrumentalist adds: the groove,
you've either got it or you haven't. Those who went before me initiated me. It's thanks
to them that I've learnt how to share this space.
Often returning to Morocco to replenish himself alongside his Gnawa masters friends,
Aziz always wants to keep going forwards and evolve. On this new album, he wanted
to introduce a different perspective: I'm trying to break away from the usual image
associated with me and to find a balance between gnawa music, writing and melody.
And when Aziz wants something he makes it happens. The result: a breathtaking
album full of many facets, recorded in a few days at the legendary Gang Studio in
Paris by Sodi (producer of Femi Kuti, Rachid Taha, Chinese Man and previously
several albums by Fela). Unstoppable choruses in tracks like "Mazal " (which means
“to carry on”, “to persist”…), "Hada Ma Jari" and "Une Dune pour Deux"; riveting
North African rock on "Inch Allah". And lastly, a show of feeling and improvisation
with his gang of musicians, united as they attack, singing in unison and going on a
hunt for notes and emotions were there normally aren't any.
We find the same inspired virtuosity on the track "Yasmine", which features the
flamenco guitarist, El Niño Josele. The two musicians have known each other a long
time since Niño Josele had called upon Aziz in 2002 to record a Spanish version of
"Zawiya” a track originally by ONB. Niño Josele is a worthy representative of a
modern style of flamenco which knows how to regenerate itself and blend in. He
shares Aziz's vision of a renewed tradition and an interest in jazz - both of which can
be heard. A new, parallel version of "Zawiya (Lawah Lawah)" appears on the album,
and hence the loop is looped with this track which never ceases to amaze its writer,
because it always manages to go in different directions.
Aziz, the poet
As regards to his writing, Aziz is as talented a poet as he is a musician. He writes
and sings in Arabic but always takes care to have his texts translated in his booklets
and albums. Aziz likes to make nature sing, get trees to talk and turn women to
flowers. Like his music, each text offers multiple readings. Among the love songs and
hymns to life, there are also songs of commitment such as « Une Dune pour Deux »
("A Dune for Two") which tells of a man who plants a tree in his neighbour's garden.
He looks after the seedling, nurtures the tree but can never gather the fruit. "There
are too many wars and conflicts both on the international and private sphere. I prefer
using metaphors rather than pointing my finger at so and so".
Describing himself as naive and a dreamer, Aziz has just one mission in mind: to
always keep the circle open, to share and to evolve. His bewitching voice, adept at
alternating between the inflexions of a bluesman, a muezzin and a crooner, pulls us
inexorably into his poetic universe where any bitterness of the day to day melts away into a jubilatory energy.
Band Members
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