I have begun some studies with Gnawa master ('ma'alem' in Arabic) Brahim El Belkani. I'm not sure how long these studies will last because it's still up to me to come up with questions in order to direct the lessons and after a point, I need to hear and learn more before I have more questions.
One of my thoughts was to focus my research on differences between the north and the south of the country, as Ma'alem Arafa suggested. However, yesterday when I asked Brahim about this, he didn't think there was really much of a difference at all. From what I could understand of the Arabic, he said, "on TV, on the internet you will hear everyone saying that there are these differences but the differences are very minimal, really." So either that nixes my idea or maybe I interview a half-dozen ma'alems and see what each of them say. One idea I had last night was to record the same Gnawa song by various different masters and compare. The only problem is that it would take a long time to determine if the differences are actually regional or just personal flair and how much of each. I'm relatively new to this music so there's a big learning curve.
In any case, here is a recording of one of the songs I am considering comparing and contrasting between masters. This is ma'alem Brahim singing and playing guimbri with his son on qraqeb. You'll have to pardon the mic testing and talking at the beginning and some peaking problems. I had pinned a mic to his collar and placed one near the guimbri. He had been singing really softly on other songs so I placed the mic near his face and then once he was in the middle of the song and singing more forcefully, I didn't want to reach up and change the mic placement. Ah well, it turned out better than the ones from Tetouan will all the background noise.
This song is the first part of the Basha Hammo series of songs from the Gnawa lila ceremony.
click here for MP3 sound clip
