Hamid El Kasri ( ar, حميد القصري; born 1961) is a Moroccan

Gnawa musician Gnawa music (Ar. ) is a body of Moroccan religious songs and rhythms. Its well-preserved heritage combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dancing. The music is performed at ''lila'', communal nights of celebration dedicated to prayer ...

traditionally considered a ''maâlem'' ( ar, مُعَلِّم), or "master musician". Born in Ksar El Kebir,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

, he now lives in Rabat. He began training at age seven, taught by Maâlem Abdelouahed Stitou and Maâlem Alouane. El Kasri is famed for his deep, intense voice, which has made him one of the most sought-after maâlems, both in Morocco and abroad. In addition to singing, he performs on the ''

guembri The sintir ( ar, سنتير), also known as the guembri (), gimbri or hejhouj or Garaya in Hausa language, is a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body carv ...

'' (), a three-stringed bass instrument. He is noted for having blended the Gnawa rhythms of the north and south of the Morocco.

Performances and Collaborations

Having made a name for himself outside Morocco, El Kasri performs regularly with foreign musicians. Several of these occasions have been at the

Gnaoua World Music Festival The Gnaoua World Music Festival is a Gnawa music festival held annually in Essaouira, Morocco. It was founded in 1998 by A3 Groupe, a private event-organizing company located in Casablanca. The festival provides a platform for a meeting point o ...

. In 2004, he played at the festival with

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to b ...

, later performing there with Karim Ziad in 2010, and Hamayun Kahn and Shahin Shahida in 2011. In 2018, El Kasri opened the Gnaoua World Music Festival with

Snarky Puppy Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...

, a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

-based jazz

jam band A jam band is a musical group whose concerts (and live albums) are characterized by lengthy improvisational " jams." These include extended musical improvisation over rhythmic grooves and chord patterns, and long sets of music which often ...

. In 2018, El Kasri performed with

Jacob Collier Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of rehar ...

at the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Ha ...

, as a part of Prom 7. Later that year, he was featured on Collier's album

Djesse Vol. 1 ''Djesse Vol. 1'' is the first album in the ''Djesse'' series by Jacob Collier. The album features the Metropole Orkest, and was released on 7 December 2018. ''Djesse'' is a planned collection of four volumes which was announced 29 October 2018 ...

, appearing on the song "Everlasting Motion".

References

1961 births 20th-century Moroccan musicians 20th-century Moroccan male singers 21st-century Moroccan musicians 21st-century Moroccan male singers Living people People from Ksar el-Kebir {{Improve categories, date=January 2020