1. Hassan Hakmoun was born on 16 September 1963 and is a Moroccan musician who specializes in the Gnawa style.
21 Facts About Hassan Hakmoun
1. 2.
Hassan Hakmoun's mother is known throughout the city as a mystic healer.
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Hassan Hakmoun began learning Gnawa music from his mother, a mystic healer in Marrakesh who organizes derdeba trance ceremonies, which are often all-night affairs involving hypnotic playing and chanting to exorcise spirits.
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Hassan Hakmoun witnessed his first trance ceremony at the young age of four.
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Hassan Hakmoun proceeded to study Gnawa music after a musical ceremony that healed his sister Mina Hakmoun.
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Hassan Hakmoun eventually chose the sintir as his main instrument, a three-stringed lute with a body made of camel skin stretched over nutwood.
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Today, Hassan Hakmoun is known as the godfather of Gnawa music.
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Hassan Hakmoun subsequently relocated to New York where he was received by artists such as composer and producer Richard Horowitz and Peter Gabriel.
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Hassan Hakmoun became a fixture in New York's rock, jazz and fusion scenes, spanning multiple genres.
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In 1989 Hassan Hakmoun became part of the group Magmouat Hassan Hakmoun with his brother Said and relatives Mohammed Bechar and Abdel Hok Dahmad.
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Later that year, with help from Robert Browning and the World Music Institute, Hassan Hakmoun produced and released his debut album Fire Within.
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Hassan Hakmoun recorded his second album, "Gift of the Gnawa" with Adam Rudolph and jazz trumpeter Don Cherry in 1991.
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Hassan Hakmoun began to expand his musical range, adding American sounds to the Moroccan form.
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Hassan Hakmoun released another album, Trance, at Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, England.
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From Bath, Hassan Hakmoun toured Europe, the Middle East and the US along with other WOMAD artists, including performing under the group's auspices at the Woodstock 94 festival in 1994.
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In 2002 Hassan Hakmoun teamed up with American-born producer Fabian Alsultany to record a new album, The Gift.
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Hassan Hakmoun has composed and recorded for several films such as Rendezvous in Samarkand directed by Tim Bridwell, The Past and the Present of Djemma El Fna by Steve Montgomery and the documentary Footsteps in Africa.
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Hassan Hakmoun appeared in several movies as an actor, dancer and musician, including Disney's Jungle 2 Jungle in 1997 and Rollerball by John McTiernan in 2002.
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Today Hassan Hakmoun continues to record and perform in major festivals and venues around the globe, as well as give master workshops in universities.
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Hassan Hakmoun subsequently began a project in collaboration with other percussive dancers to create a new style of Gnawa dance.
21.
Hassan Hakmoun met Cole on the Peter Gabriel "Secret World Live" tour in 1994.