Majid Bekkas - Magic Spirit Quartet (2020)

Trance, ritual mysticism, psychedelic magic - however you want to describe the effect of Gnawa music, it has a worldwide fascination. Majid Bekkas is one of the most dazzling masters of the modern Gnawa universe, and perhaps the most diverse in other genres. With the Magic Spirit Quartet, he now builds a daring bridge from North Africa to Scandinavia, from archaic to ambient - and captures the spirit of jazz in the 21st century.

Where the Gnawa originally came from is still not entirely clear. It is precisely this origin from the dark that contributes to their nimbus: deported from Mali, Niger or Ghana to the former empire of Morocco as slaves, they were able to preserve their culture, conjure up night-long rituals, so-called lilâhs, the spirits, heal diseases with these ceremonies. Over the past two centuries, this music has been inextricably linked to Moroccan culture with its powerful chants, the clatter of gigantic castanets and the inescapable groove of the Guembri bass lute. Even more important: For several decades now, jazz musicians like Randy Weston or Dub Pope Bill Laswell have discovered the power of Gnawa music for the West in jam sessions.

Moroccan Majid Bekkas is one of the most exciting Gnawa globalistas of our time. He joined Guembri in the mid-1970s and founded a pioneering Moroccan rock band. Since then, he has transcended all cultural barriers with this massive desert bass, but also with the oud and his charismatic voice - in teamwork with Joachim Kühn ("Out Of The Desert", published by ACT in 2009), Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and Klaus Doldinger, to name just the tip of the musical iceberg. His knotwork extends from Morocco to the blues and the Indian sound world.

With the Magic Spirit Quartet, Bekkas is preparing for three Nordic-rooted artists whose sound spectrum makes them veritable global citizens: trumpeter Goran Kajfeš is just as at home in jazz futurism and minimalism as in the Middle East and Africa, and the Swede already has Bekkas as leader of the Subtropic Arkestra received as a guest. Part of this formation is the keyboard genius Jesper Nordenström, who is washed with all water in the Swedish scene. The Danish drummer Stefan Pasborg, who is at home in a wide variety of contexts, is responsible for the foundation: as part of Carsten Dahl Trinity, at Ibrahim Electric, in a duo with the Kora virtuoso Dawda Jobarteh and in earlier times with Tomasz Stanko, John Tchicai and Marc Ducret. How does this clash of two worlds sound, the tête-à-tête des Maghrebiners with the north men?

"Aicha" takes a fabulous twelve minutes to turn a meandering intro with vocal and trumpet dialogues into a majestically circulating subject that finally condenses into a breathless pull. With spherical guitar riffs over a trotting beat, »Hassania« catapults the listener straight into the desert, Bekkas is inspired by the vocal style of the Moroccan desert from his home region around Zagora - and the collective improvisation in the finale resembles an acoustic mirage. With a crisp, funky groove, »Bania« reflects the danceable side of the Gnawa ceremonies, the call-and-response vocals hover over the band in full flight, enriched by shimmering and glowing keyboard contours. Bekkas instills his oud skills in "Chahia Taiba" and proves to be a congenial counterpart to Goran Kajfeš against the sci-fi backdrop of a cool Moog. The free intro of "Mrhaba" seems like a morning greeting to the rising sun before a powerful Gnawa melody alternates with the trumpet over a kind of afrobeat groove, "Annabi", on the other hand, remains completely pensive with a tender theme. And in the final »MSQ«, the quality of improvisation of this quartet breaks free - purely instrumental.

The big breath of improvisation, crisp polyrhythmics, an organic collision of electro flair and spirituality - all this is in this exciting fraternization across continents and centuries.

TRACKLIST

01. Aicha
02. Hassania
03. Bania
04. Taiba
05. Mrhaba
06. Annabi
07. Msq



All thanks go to the original releaser