4/8/2005

Sufi trance music with Hassan Hakmoun
8 pm
$15 advance
$18 day of show
Online sales at Ticketweb

Cedar Cultural Center
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 338-2674
www.thecedar.org

Hakmoun has tackled the landmark task of bridging Gnawa music from Morocco
with Arabic music. Hakmoun carries the healing tradition to a wider audience.
North Africa has long been a crossroads. The Gnawa people of Morocco descend
from slaves from West Africa, but they claim spiritual descent from Bilal
al-Habashi,
an Ethiopian who was the Prophet Mohammed's first muezzin (caller to prayer).
Gnawa music's integration of African rhythms and sensibility has been compared
to
the Blues and Santeria.

Hassan Hakmoun has street smarts. By age four, he performed alongside snake
charmers and fire-breathers on Marrakech streets. His mother is known throughout
the city as a mystic healer. Her derdeba trance ceremonies are all-night affairs
where hypnotic playing and chanting exorcise evil spirits. This musical form,
steeped in Islamic mysticism and West African rhythms, lifts the spirit and
heals the
wounded with songs of praise. Out of these origins came an emissary infused with
Gnawa music as well as rock and funk.