Maalem Aziz Arradi - 7-Hour Gnawa Lila Recording

Salaam, friends - I just stumbled across a 7-hour (!!) recording of a Gnawa lila from Marrakech/Tamesloht that was posted on the Internet Archive by French musician David Vilayleck. It dates from November 2018 and features Maalem Aziz Arradi from Marrakech. I'm about 3 hours into it, and it's a real gift of a recording. Not because of its sound quality (it was recorded on a smartphone), but because of the pace of the performance and the overall ambiance of the recording.

You can't hear all of the lyrics, the guinbri is a bit buried, the qarqabas are pretty loud, and there's a fair bit of discussion going on among the assembled. In other words, this is what it sounds like to be at a lila. The songs take as long as they require to get where they need to go - or rather, to get people where they need to get to. 

Listen in the player above, or download from the Internet Archive HERE.

Thanks David and Aziz for sharing this recording, and alhamdulillah I found it on good night to be aurally transported away from the shitshow that my country has become.