Here's a nice old-school Gnawa cassette from Mâalem Mohamed Daoui. During my research days (late 1990s - early 2000s), Daoui was the most well known Gnawa mâalem from Meknes. I believe he was the primary interlocutor for the German researcher Frank Welte, whose Der Gnawa-Kult: Trancespiele, Geisterbeschwörung und Besessenheit in Marokko (1990) was one of the first books on Gnawa ritual and repertoire.
The cassette contains 3 tracks - the first is a 25-minute non-stop suite of songs from various sections of the Gnawa lila ceremony (black, blue, and red songs). This track crosses sides 1 and 2 of the cassette, but I was able to edit them together relatively seamlessly.
The track that destroyed me was the second track. I made the mistake of transferring this tape when I was trying to do work for my day job. "Moulay Abdellah Ben Lhoucine" came out of the speakers and within about a minute my hair was down and I was stamping the floor with my bare feet and banging my hands on my desk/workstation. (Good thing I am working remotely these days...) The singing unfolds at its own pace, going on as long as it needs to, to give a listener (trancer) the lines of text that invoke the ambience of wali (saint), while the guinbri marks time, provocatively, underneath, and the choral responders keep the energy high and provacative. On the ritual floor, singing would continue until the mâalem judges that trancers are competently riding the groove and are ready to interact directly with the guinbi. His manipulation of riffs responds to (or provokes) the movements of whatever trancing body is directly in front of him, moving in dialogue or in concert with his guinbri. In this state of heightened musical awareness, trancers are keenly aware of the slightest variations of phrase, accent, and volume level. The job of the mâalem is to give the trancer the musical support to express in movement whatever needs to expressed. This track, better than most Gnawa tracks you will hear, gives a sense of how that conversation unfolds - though of course you are only hearing one side of it.
Daoui الضاوي
Variétés Marocaines Gnaoui منوعات ڭناوية
Sawt Isamailia cassette 015 صوت الإسماعلية
A1-B1 Berkilia - Fofo Denba - Lgnaoui Baba Mimoun - Samaoui - Marhaba Sidi Komwi
B2 Moulay Abdellah Ben Lhoucine - Moulay Brahim
B3 Mekkaoui Habib Allah - Âmmar Douwaya Abdellah
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