Innov Gnawa

Formed in 2014 in New York, Innov Gnawa have become masters of Morocco’s venerable music tradition of gnawa, the spiritual songs and rhythms that trace their roots by way of northern Mali and Mauritania. Hassan Ben Jaafer, the group’s founder and musical leader, comes from a long line of gnawa masters in the city of Fez, and with the traditional three-stringed, skin-covered guembri, leads his five-man ensemble who respond to his calls with a chorus of layered vocals.