Justin Adams & Mohamed Errebbaa in Norwich - Lala Fatima

A new UK based collaboration between Justin Adams and Moroccan Gnawa master Mohammed Errebbaa.
From Adams’ work with Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart, to collaborations with Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, and Juldeh Camara, his connection with the trance music of North Africa has always been an integral part of his sound.
This new project sees him team up with Errebbaa, who began performing with traditional Sufi brotherhoods in Rabat, Morocco at the age of ten, and received the title of Maalem (master of the Gnawa tradition) at the age of 28, after working with many of the great Gnawa players such as Maalem Abderahim Benthami; Said Oughassal and Maalem Moktar Gania.
The Gnawa and Their Origins
The term "Gnawa" refers firstly to a North African ethnic minority that traces its origins to West African slaves and soldiers. Gnawa communities in the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) trace their origins to the Sudan, not meaning the present-day nation of Sudan, but rather sub-Saharan African in general. (The word "Sudan," after all, is merely the Arabic word for "the Blacks.") Thus, like the term "African-American," Gnawa refers to a group of people whose ancestors came from diverse regions of Africa but took on a collective identity in exile. In song texts, the Gnawa refer to their origins among the Bambara, Fulani, and Haussa, and history points to a large influx of them primarily in the Niger river bend area of Mali and Niger. The origins of a black African community in the Maghreb may be traced back at least as far as Sultan Ahmed el-Mansour's conquest of the Songhai empire in 1591, when several thousand men and women were brought north as servants. Other documents make mention of a black African presence and musical tradition in the Maghreb as early as the eleventh century. The slave trade in Morocco continued until the early years of the twentieth century.
Guitarist ; Producer Justin Adams and Mohamed Errebbaa collaborating in new project "Lifting Spirits" playing with Dave Smith on the drums and Driss yamdah on the Krakebs (metal percussion).