Saha Gnawa

Saha Gnawa is a Brooklyn-based group led by Maâlem Hassan Ben Jaafer—a Gnawa master raised in Fes, Morocco, where he was steeped in the tradition at his father’s (Maâlem Abdullah Benjaafar’s) officially recognized Gnawa school and earned the title of maâlem as a teenager after studying with masters across Morocco. The band is a project that grew out of Innov Gnawa, the Grammy-nominated ensemble Ben Jaafer started after moving to New York in 1999 to bring the trance-inducing, healing music of Gnawa—often called “Sufi blues”—to wider audiences. Teaming up with New York drummer-composer Daniel Freedman, Saha Gnawa fuses the polyrhythmic grooves, call-and-response vocals, and hypnotic guembri and qraqeb of traditional Moroccan Gnawa with the energy of the city’s jazz and electronic music scenes, inviting guests like Nels Cline and Donny McCaslin for adventurous jams and studio sessions. Their self-titled debut album, released in Fall 2025, spins ancestral spiritual chants into danceable, expansive soundscapes where old and new worlds collide—all while keeping the music rooted in Gnawa’s deep, soulful essence.