{
  "slug": "gnawa",
  "name": "Gnawa",
  "aliases": [
    "gnaoua",
    "guinbri music",
    "lila"
  ],
  "description": "Moroccan trance music carried north by enslaved West Africans and played through the night at healing ceremonies: a three-string bass lute, iron castanets, and one pattern held until something gives.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Essaouira and Marrakech, Morocco",
    "year": 1600
  },
  "lineage": [],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 70,
    "max": 120
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/gnawa/",
  "trackCount": 5,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "maalem-mahmoud-guinia--colours-of-the-night",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia--colours-of-the-night/",
      "title": "Colours of the Night",
      "artist": "Maalem Mahmoud Guinia",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia/",
      "year": 2013,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The master of the guinbri recorded in Casablanca, doing exactly what he would do at a lila. No concession to a listening audience, and it is the most hypnotic record in this part of the corpus.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20Colours%20of%20the%20Night",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Dia5GNigpdA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "maalem-mahmoud-guinia-with-james-holden-and-floating-points--marhaba",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia-with-james-holden-and-floating-points--marhaba/",
      "title": "Marhaba",
      "artist": "Maalem Mahmoud Guinia with James Holden and Floating Points",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia-with-james-holden-and-floating-points/",
      "year": 2015,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A week in a hotel outside Marrakech with two British electronic producers who had the sense to mostly get out of the way. The rare fusion where nobody is being borrowed from.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20with%20James%20Holden%20and%20Floating%20Points%20Marhaba",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJFee3viNg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "maalem-mahmoud-guinia--aicha",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia--aicha/",
      "title": "Aicha",
      "artist": "Maalem Mahmoud Guinia",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia/",
      "year": 1998,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Released on cassette, which is how most of this music actually circulated for fifty years before anyone abroad was listening. The unpolished version, and the better one.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20Aicha",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7h6kgHFfuuo",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "nass-el-ghiwane--ya-sidi",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/nass-el-ghiwane--ya-sidi/",
      "title": "Ya Sidi",
      "artist": "Nass El Ghiwane",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/nass-el-ghiwane/",
      "year": 1974,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Not a gnawa group, and unthinkable without gnawa. Nass El Ghiwane put the guinbri and the ceremony's rhythms into protest songs, and Morocco has not sounded the same since.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Ya%20Sidi",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ2_sQuAFE4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "nass-el-ghiwane--bouderbala",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/nass-el-ghiwane--bouderbala/",
      "title": "Bouderbala",
      "artist": "Nass El Ghiwane",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/nass-el-ghiwane/",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Scorsese called them the Rolling Stones of Africa, which undersells the strangeness. Percussion, a banjo, and lyrics old enough that nobody is sure who wrote them.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala",
          "exact": false
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}